The Alyssa of Nine Trilogy
by a girl from Bathurst
Summary: The complete story of Alyssa Whitestone in one thrilling book! Includes: Book One: Alyssa of Nine (the Hunger Games Reimagined) Book Two: Capitol Vengeance (Catching Fire Reimagined) Book Three: Freedom Fighter (Mockingjay Reimagined)
1. Alyssa of Nine table of contents

The Alyssa of Nine Trilogy

A Hunger Games Trilogy Retelling

By

Shawna Marie Scott

2016

ALYSSA OF NINE: The Hunger Games Reimagined

Table of Contents:

A Brief Description of Panem

The Treaty of the Treason

ACT ONE: The Orphan

Prologue

One: Alyssa Whitestone

Two: The Reaping

Three: Goodbyes

Four: Noah and Henrietta

Five: The Capitol

Six: The Tribute Parade

Seven: A Parting of Ways?

Eight: Training and Scores

Nine: Interviews with Caesar

Ten: The Last Night

Eleven: Noah's Last Advice

Twelve: Into the Pyramid

Thirteen: The First Night

Fourteen: Day Two

Fifteen: Hall of Fatalities

Sixteen: Oasis and Sponsor Parachutes

ACT TWO: The Victor

Seventeen: A Deadly Banquet

Eighteen: Marina's Death

Nineteen: Matthew's Sacrifice

Twenty: The Finale

Twenty-One: The Victor

Twenty-Two: Going Home

Fan Soundtrack for the Alyssa of Nine Trilogy

CAPITOL VENGEANCE

Catching Fire Reimagined

2016

Act One: The Unrest

Prologue: Two Victors

One: Even Home is not the Same

Two: President Snow

Three: The Tour Begins

Four: District Twelve

Five: Mayor Undersee's Mansion

Six: The Presidential Palace

Seven: Days of Darkness

Eight: The Third Quarter Quell

Act Two: The 75th Hunger Games

Nine: The Reaping of the Victors

Ten: The Reaping of the Other Victors

Eleven: Noah's Backstory

Twelve: Finnick Odair

Thirteen: Nuts, Volts, and the Murderess with an Ax

Fourteen: The Final Evaluations

Fifteen: Unity of the Victors

Sixteen: Cornucopia at Sea

Seventeen: Into the Jungle

Eighteen: Fog of Death

Nineteen: The Morphling's Sacrifice

Twenty: Recovery

Twenty-One: More Allies

Twenty-Two: Tick Tock, this Arena is a Clock

Twenty-Three: Careers and Jabberjays

Twenty-Four: Annie Cresta's Story

Twenty-Five: The Arrow Flies

Twenty-Six: Sterling and Melina Linwood

Twenty-Seven: The Beginning of War

FREEDOM FIGHTER: Mockingjay Reimagined

Based on characters from the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

Table of Contents:

Prologue: Rebels Unite

Chapter One: District Thirteen

Chapter Two: President Alma Coin

Chapter Three: Mockingjay and Freedom Fighter

Chapter Four: Peeta's Request

Chapter Five: The Return of Haymitch

Chapter Six: The Battle of District Nine

Chapter Seven: the Freedom Fighter's First Propo

Chapter Eight: Assault on District Thirteen

Chapter Nine: Trident Boy's Secrets

Chapter Ten: Battle of the Tribute Center

Chapter Eleven: Victors Liberated

Chapter Twelve: A Not So Happy Reunion

Chapter Thirteen: Us and Them

Chapter Fourteen: A War Wedding

Chapter Fifteen: With the Mockingjay

Chapter Sixteen: "Welcome to the 76th Hunger Games."

Chapter Seventeen: Sea of Oil

Chapter Eighteen: Taking Shelter

Chapter Nineteen: Moving Underground

Chapter Twenty: Finnick's Final Stand

Chapter Twenty-One: Tigris

Chapter Twenty-Two: Siege of the Presidential Palace

Chapter Twenty-Three: Coin's Grand Deception

Chapter Twenty-Four: Aftermath

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Fate of Two Presidents

Chapter Twenty-Six: A New Dawn

Epilogue


	2. Intro

A Brief Description of the Nation of Panem

THE CAPITOL

This is where it all begins in Panem, with the dazzling and extravagant Capitol, which serves as the nations' seat of government and the home of many of the country's elite and wealthy citizens.

However, underneath the glamour and decadence, there lies a disturbing, dark side to this city's history, most notably with the cruelty and evil of the Hunger Games. And make no mistake, this nation's longtime leader, President Coriolanus Snow is not someone to cross.

District One: Luxury

District One is one of the wealthiest districts in all of Panem, and it isn't difficult to see why, as it provides the Capitol with all of its furs, fine jewels, feathers, glimmer, and gloss. This is also a district from which a majority of Careers (those who have trained their whole lives for the Hunger Games) reside. This District was once home to such victors as Cashmere and her brother, Gloss.

District Two: Masonry

District Two, another one of the wealthier districts, has also turned out a number of its own lethal Career tributes, many of which have made it as legendary victors. And where would the Capitol be without those who dedicate their lives to build the luxurious mansions or their loyal Peacekeepers? Hailing from District Two were victors Brutus and Enobaria (with the scary sharp teeth) among others.

District Three: Technology

The home district of the intellectual Wiress Goodwin and Beetee Latier, those in District Three are the sole providers of technology and with this technology, innovation and entertainment both for the Capitol.

District Four: Fishing

The home district of the elderly Mags, Annie Cresta, and the legendary Finnick Odair, who was crowned the youngest ever victor of the Hunger Games at fourteen.

District Four is a tropical district by the sea, which makes sense, since all of the delicious fish and succulent seafood often consumed in the Capitol had to be caught by the fishermen of Panem. (It's not like any of those loathsome Capitol people would have ever dreamed of doing any of the real work for themselves). Many of the country's noted Careers have also been born and raised here.

District Five: Power

Electricity is very important to this nation in order for it to survive and function, and in District Five dwell the power plants, hydro-electric dams, and the power plant workers of Panem.

District Six: Transportation

District Six also plays its own critical part in the overall survival of this futuristic nation, and the Capitol, since transportation is needed to ship products and produce from the districts to the Capitol. Strangely enough, the residents of District Six do not have much enthusiasm for transportation. But perhaps it's not so strange, given the terrible things that the Capitol has undoubtedly done to them as much as most in the other districts.

District Seven: Lumber

The wooded seventh district of Panem is responsible for providing the Capitol with its precious supplies of lumber for some indoor heating or building purposes. It is one of the poorer districts, with the majority of its citizens suffering under the cruel cycle of oppression, overwork with little pay, and poverty. For the often hateful and bitter Hunger Games victor Johanna Mason, District Seven is home.

District Eight: Textiles

Another one of the poorer districts of Panem, Eight's major industry is textiles, which provides much of the materials needed to clothe the citizens of the Capitol.

District Nine: Grain

Alyssa Whitestone and Noah Linwood hail from District Nine, which is mainly prairie land where the wheat of Panem is grown and harvested and milled into refined white flour, or other grains are gathered mostly for the Capitol. Alyssa's parents were both taken away and executed when Alyssa was only four years old, and she has since lived as just another unloved child in a seemingly neverending orphan population of unwanted children. That is, until the reaping day of Alyssa's seventeenth year.

District Ten: Livestock

The livestock farmers of Panem are a lot like the farmers of the old Frontier. Tough, hardworking, and strengthened by the work expected of most of them. They slave under the constant everyday threat of lashes and beatings to provide the Capitol with meat and dairy products, and the Capitol feasts, most with nary a care that most people in Ten aren't even allowed much of this food, and many are consequently starving.

District Eleven: Agriculture

Eleven is even poorer than Ten, with hundreds of its citizens mired in debt or in poverty. But the Capitol has to eat, so the District Eleven farmers are expected to provide the crops of vegetables or fruits from the orchards, or suffer dire consequences.

District Twelve: Coal Mining

With a long standing and depressing reputation as the poorest and least recognized district in Panem, District Twelve citizens are divided into two classes. The merchants and healers, who are only slightly better off at best, and the coal miners and destitutes of the Seam. That is, until Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark were reaped, survived, and everything finally began to change as war across Panem, and against the Capitol, erupted.

District Thirteen: Graphite Mines/Military

Location: Unclear

Long believed to have been destroyed by the Capitol as a cruel reminder to the other Districts of what could happen if they step out of line, District Thirteen had in fact survived for seventy-five years since, hidden underground. Though due to an influenza epidemic, hundreds were lost, a staggering number being only children.

But Thirteen were largely military, as Colonel Boggs put it, so they learned to survive underground under the leadership of President Coin, and have been waiting for several decades for the most opportune time to strike back at the Capitol with its own deathly blows.

By Order of The Treaty of The Treason:

In penance for their past uprising against the mighty and noble Capitol, each and every district of the Nation of Panem shall:

Submit to the total authority and power of Peacekeepers, President, and Capitol.

Supply most or all of what shall be produced by the work of their home districts only to the Capitol for their use and benefit. In return, the Capitol shall provide security and maintain order in each district.

Never again defy or question the power of the Capitol.

Never again wage war or any other conflict against the Capitol.

And to ensure that the Dark Days shall never again be repeated and the districts shall never be greater than the Capitol, one boy and one girl from the ages 12 to 18 shall once every year be chosen at a public reaping in each district. From there, these "tributes" will each be delivered into the custody of the Capitol for a week of preparation. Then sent into an arena to fight to the death on live t.v. until a lone victor remains. Henceforth this pageant shall be forever known as the Hunger Games.


	3. ACT ONE The Orphan

ACT ONE

"The Orphan"

"Embrace the probability of your imminent death, and know, in your heart, that there is nothing I can do to save you."

-Haymitch Abernathy, District 12

"Hope. It is the only thing more powerful than fear. A little hope is effective. Too much hope is dangerous. Therefore it must be contained."

-President Coriolanus Snow

"My best advice for anyone unfortunate enough to get reaped? There's no turning back, no forfeiture, no mercy. So you get in the arena, you run like Hell, and when the time is right, come out fighting."

-Noah Linwood, District 9

"Murder with a vengeance, or die another day."

-Johanna Mason, District 7

"I have secrets, everyone has secrets, from the pampered Capitol Elite to the beaten down district workers, honey, what's yours?"

-Finnick Odair, District 4


	4. Prologue

Prologue

District Nine

Some time in the early era of the New Republic of Panem

I am living as a free citizen of Panem, which is something I once never thought that I or anyone else from any district in my lifetime would be able to claim. But even now, I lead a life that so often feels lonely, and any true sense of peace still evades me when I remember the very worst of not just living as an oppressed orphan. Or even all I had to do to survive not one but two Hunger Games, but everything that happened in the war to end the Games, to end President Snow's corrupt regime. And realizing that not even President Alma Coin of District Thirteen could be trusted in the end.

One small consolation I suppose is that I think my parents would be proud of what historical changes I've contributed to and accomplished. Right along with my friends, at least half of them are now gone, including my old mentor who once lived just across from me in this former Victor's Village, which at times seems even lonelier than it did in the dark time of the Hunger Games. He was the only man I'm certain I'll ever love as I did.

Are you sure you want to know my story? I suggest you better be. One thing I can promise you is that it's not for the faint of heart. Like the Games, once I've begun, there'll be no turning back. I don't sugarcoat anything.

My home district is a town interspersed with many golden fields where the wheat and other precious grains are grown every year from spring until harvest time. We then have to mill the wheat into the kind of refined or enriched flours that only the citizens of the Capitol and maybe the wealthier districts like One and Two are allowed to use. At least, this is how it was before the longed for Era of Great Freedom began.

I was named Alyssa and I am a Whitestone, the last living Whitestone that I know of. My district and home is Nine, always has been, and I certain always will be. Where else would I go? The Capitol? I would rather be dead than live there, even though Snow, my most dangerous enemy is also gone, and the whole country is now liberated, and President Paylor is a fairer, better leader and human being overall than Snow, driven by the need for power and control, or even Coin, driven by the need for revenge against the Capitol she so despised.

The Hunger Games were one of the biggest problems with this society in Panem, once called North America. There is the Capitol, and there were officially twelve (but actually thirteen) outlying districts.

Apparently the old story goes that the people of the old Panem, not being content nor appreciative enough of what the earlier Capitol gave them, soon rebelled. History would call this period the Dark Days. Everyone turned on one another, and nobody really knew who to trust anymore. The Dark Days seems only a fitting name.

And then came the supposed era of great peace, when the war had ended, the rebellion had been crushed, and the Capitol had been triumphant. A treaty of the treason had been negotiated, and it had been decreed that the rest of Panem, the districts basically, were the ones to be held forever accountable and punished for the rebellion. And to ensure that not only will there never be another rebellion, but that the people will always remember the cost of the last rebellion, they wrote into law the Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games were disgusting, depraved, evil, sick, humiliating, and plenty of other things that are too numerous to mention right now. And by the time I was a teenager it was still ongoing, the one that both changed and ruined my life forever would be the 73rd when I was just seventeen. And the worst part of it all was that we were all forbidden to complain, to protest against it.

See, another twisted part of this cruel punishment is that everyone in all of the districts must celebrate the Hunger Games by law. They must be not only accepting but honored that the Capitol might at any reaping pluck out any of their children to compete in the Hunger Games. In some of the wealthier districts, like One and Two, where there are kids who were trained from an early age in preparation for the Games called Careers, (and they were the tributes who most frequently won the Games) it is easier for many of them to see the Games as they are supposed to.

But I don't come from District One or District Two. District Nine is a far cry from being anything like either, as I've always been taught. Our major industry is of course in all grain, but mainly wheat farming. Needless to say, most of it, and certainly the very best quality of it all goes mainly to the Capitol. While we in District Nine get these dense, often hard to chew, and unpleasent looking brown rolls made from all that we are allowed to use, or if we sign up for tessarae.

But the provision of tessarae is yet another trap, as I've come to see it, especially for dirt-poor, parentless children like me. As if the Capitol is telling us, "The more you sign your name up, the more likely it is that we will eventually have you in that arena. So watch your backs."

I have lived in the community orphan home of District Nine ever since I was four years old up until the day I was reaped for my first Hunger Games at seventeen. I don't know much about who my parents were. Except that I was the only child born to them, that my father was a wheat farmer, like his father and his father before him, and that at least one or two relatives of my mother's, including her older sister, Kayla Morgan had been killed in one of the big Hunger Games, the 50th, which took place some years before I was born.

I was too young to clearly remember it all for myself from the day it happened, (though in time I learned many things) but my father, along with many discontented others, including several old friends who were also consequently punished, had been very outspoken against the evils of the Capitol. I remembered less about him than I did about my mother.

My mother was as good to me as she could afford to be, and beautiful, and kind, but she always seemed sad. But at least I once had a family to call my own. My father was Gordon Whitestone, and my mother's name was Teresa Morgan, until the day she was married to my father. That is, I had a family until the day when they were both cruelly taken from me.

They came one day to our house without any given warning, these men clad from head to foot in the protective white armour of the Peacekeepers. They took my father away first, and then my mother, and just before they came for her, she told me not to cry, and to not be afraid, that I am a Whitestone and that means something, but I didn't really understand it back then.

But I hoped that someday soon I would. So much time has passed since then, so many things have happened, terrible things I can never change, and good things, in the moments that count for much more than the bad.

Today is the first day that I am being interviewed about every major event that occured in my life. About my Hunger Games, both of them, and about what happened during the war, so that other people can understand better. So that history will remember that I was the Freedom Fighter. That I had a significant part in changing Panem forever, I suppose.

I very nearly refused to do this. I really didn't want to relive that world with some complete stranger from up in the Capitol, when I still had those memories that at times couldn't give me any peace. But Plutarch Heavensbee knows this journalist-of course he does-and it was Plutarch, and the rest of Panem, that insisted I do this, just this once. So what else could I do but say yes.

I watched from the sitting room window of my mansion in the Victor's Village as the man himself came up the front walkway to ring the doorbell which one of my household staff went to answer, but I said to her, "It's all right Hanna, It's for me anyway." And I open the door to him. "Good afternoon Miss Whitestone, Jem Tasselgrove." He shakes my hand and says to me, "Once again, I thank you for allowing me to come down on such short notice, and my condolences for your loss. Noah Linwood should have had a longer life than he did."

Mr. Tasselgrove is dressed quite professionally enough, and although not quite as gaudy as some colours still known to come from the Capitol, his obviously dyed in hair colour certainly said it all as far as his place of origin was concerned. So I say to him, "Well, let's not waste any more time, come in, and we can get this first session over with." I say to Mr. Tasselgrove, resigned to it, and wondering why I had agreed to doing this. The truth was that it was actually not only Plutarch from way up in the Capitol, but my therapist, Dr. Hart and even my friends Cassandra and Mace had been in agreement that it was what was best.

"Alyssa, it's been three weeks since the war ended, and you know, they wouldn't want you to shut yourself out from the world, not Nathan, Prim, Finnick, or Noah, or your parents, I'm certain. Not any of them, if you won't move through all this for yourself, then at least move through it for them." Cassandra had told me admonishingly just the other day when I had gotten the phone call.

When I found out that not only would Mr. Tasselgrove be coming to interview me, Alyssa Whitestone, the girl who was once known to the world as Alyssa of Nine and the Freedom Fighter, but that I would have to relive every moment from my childhood and horrors of the Games to the tragedies of the war, I knew it would not be an easy task. Not when I wanted more than anything to forget, even knowing that I never could. Not now.

Panem is really all there is left of this world, now, for us to inhabit. Even though the Hunger Games are now effectively outlawed, everyone still watches me, and Cassandra was right, the people of Panem still needed their history.

As if having some inkling of every thought running through my head, Mr. Tasselgrove says, sitting in the chair across from me at the coffee table, "Miss Whitestone, I...understand how difficult all this must be for you, now. Emotions are still running very high in Panem, especially in the Capitol. And from what I gather, with your Games, all your personal losses, well, if you need to, just take your time-"

"Do you want to hear about my story or not, Mr. Tasselgrove?" I ask him sternly, which shuts up all his unbearable prattling about how he understands what I've lived through, my reality. It's still separate from his own reality as night and day, and so much uglier, tainted from the crimes and cruelties of the Capitol in the Panem I knew before the war changed it all. "Of course, Miss Whitestone. That's why we're both here, after all."

And so, my story begins, with the spring that I was seventeen, the year when one of my worst living fears and haunting nightmares first became an irreversible part of my history...


	5. Life in District Nine

Two and a half years earlier

Reaping Day

District Nine

For thirteen years after my parents were taken away and killed I have lived in the orphan's community home, under the supervision of Caretaker Grimes and Mrs. Bryant. But even though we were provided for as far as the barest neccesities went, we often barely got enough of those things, and we never knew the love of a true family, because we never had anyone but ourselves.

Since it is Reaping Day again, the first thing we did is wash up as best we can and dress in our best sets of clothes, the kind we were only allowed to wear to the reaping which happens once every year, a week before the Hunger Games begin.

The Hunger Games are a disgusting, twisted, and cruel punishment that has been in existence since the Dark Days and the failed rebellion against the Capitol. Once every year at a reaping, one girl and one boy from every district from the ages of twelve to eighteen are to be reaped to train in the Capitol and then compete in the annual Hunger Games.

The way the Games work is that once they have gone through the training, been shown off to the Capitol, and spent one week in the lap of luxury, they are sent into an outdoor arena which can hold any kind of landscape and any kind of dangers. And they must kill other tributes or get killed for the entertainment of those in the Capitol.

But half of the time, it's not only the other tributes that you'd have to worry about. The elements of any arena environment, depending how harsh it is, can wipe anybody out if they aren't prepared to survive it, or they don't get enough sponsors to provide the tools or even medicines they may need. I've seen it happen on television before in Games past.

Once Caretaker Grimes had ordered us all into orderly and precise lines, he went through the usual mandatory roll call. And then we filed into the orphan home cafeteria for our daily breakfast rations of mushpaste. A watery and lumpy kind of cooked cereal that is just as good as the name sounds, which means it isn't good at all. But it is better than starving to death.

Another rotten deal that those of us with no parents in District Nine would get is that we had to sign our names on paper, even after we've paid for each meal. This is to make sure that we haven't tried to run off in an illegal attempt at escaping the district, and also to make sure our names get entered even more times than anyone else's for every reaping.

As I sit down with my tray, two of the other older orphans of the community home take their places at the same table. One of them I know as Mace Grant, and the other is Natasha Blackburn. Mace's parents were so impoverished by the time he was born that they had one day just left him on the doorstep of this place, crying and unwanted.

Mace wasn't by any means particularly good-looking with his sullen face and murky-brown hair, and never had been, but he was a loyal friend. He once scared off a bunch of merchant's kids who tried to bully me, one day when I was six, and after he stood up for me, we were friends ever since. But I'm not interested in Mace in the way of anything more serious than a long standing friendship. I don't think I'll ever be interested enough in any guy for romance. I get by just as well on my own since I've mostly been left to fend for myself from an early age anyway. I don't need a man to be dependent on, and I can't stand the kind of girls who think they do.

I also can't stand people like Caretaker Grimes and Miss Bryant, but without them and the orphan home, as they once reminded me in so many cruel ways on a daily basis, I would have been left to starve to death or die of some terrible illness since no one else would ever want me. Something to do with the stigma of having your parents die trying to change Panem only to have them vilified by so many as criminals anyway. It was almost like they died in vain, which is in no way depressing.

Natasha Black on the other hand, was actually quite pretty, and she knows it. She really liked Rowan McCain, but a lot of girls, even in the orphan community home do. But she knew she sadly didn't stand a chance, since Rowan comes from as well-to-do a family as you can find in District Nine. The District Mayor is his father. I don't know about the other districts, but any integration of the classes is strictly forbidden here in Nine.

Natasha at least had a decent roof over her head. Natasha had a family who actually gave a damn about her, and she could always count on the fact that she also had never had to rely on signing up for a tessera to feed her family nearly so often as the desperately poor of District Nine. She would certainly never have had to sign her name for the Reaping for every single week's worth of meals like any orphan had to.

Even as notoriously rigged as the Reaping System always had been, the odds were still more likely to be in Natasha's favour, once again, than mine due simply to the fact that her place in our society was always several steps above ours. Everyone in every district in Panem still had to accept and even love the class systems in each district by law like everything else. That's another thing they never failed to remind us of in the orphan community home.


	6. The Reaping

As soon as Caretaker Grimes has the stage, he begins the speech. "Welcome to Hell. As I know you are all aware, today we celebrate another reaping, the introduction of this year's twenty-four tributes, and will in the few weeks after celebrate the 73rd Hunger Games. Today, two young individuals, one male and one female will be chosen to represent District Nine in this year's Hunger Games. They may be anyone within the predetermined eligible age group, they may even be sitting in this room. It could easily be any one of you. So it would be in your best interests to heed what I am about to say.

"If in the event that you are chosen, that is to say reaped, you are not to expect any good-byes from us, since you have no one but yourselves. You will from the moment of your reaping be delivered to the custody of the Capitol. And we expect to see no tears, no crying, not the slightest sign of weakness from any of you. You may only be orphans now, but once you are a tribute, there is no going back. No one can save you. And the entire nation will have its eyes on you.

"If you can by some miracle pull off giving them a good show and make a lasting impression, then you will gain sponsors who will see that you can be taken seriously and will be willing to donate some much needed provisions to you when you're out there in the arena, and maybe you'll manage to stay alive.

But if you can't do this, as the screwdriver said to the screw, you're screwed. Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor." With that said, Caretaker Grimes walks off the stage and he and Miss Briant begin herding us out of the building.

As we are walking toward the District Square, Mace catches up with me. "Now that had to be the worst pre-Hunger Games joke I have ever heard the Grimester crack, he just broke a new record in terrible."

"You mean he even broke your record, Mace? That doesn't seem difficult to do." Nathan Thorpe, another longtime friend says from behind him. "Better be careful or he might still take a whipping to you."

But Mace says dismissively, "That old man hasn't scared me since I was eight years old. Now about these Games, I have a strategy of my own already formulated just in case I get reaped. These Capitol people will get no satisfaction in any cowardice from me. I'm telling you, that should I be a tribute, I'm not going down without a fight."

"Yes but it may not be necessary." Cassandra says. "How many times this year did you put your name in?" And Mace answers at once with "Fifty-three." To which Nathan added, "My name is in there seventy-six times bro."

And Mace says, "Better you than me, hey, I'm just joking!" While Cassandra shakes her head and says, "Don't ever joke about anything like this again. It's not something to laugh about."

"How many times did you put your name in Cass?" I suddenly ask her, not really wanting to know, but mostly to stop Mace from saying another word about the Games that would only upset Cassandra. Or worse still, bring trouble down on us if we're overheard, even though we are talking amongst ourselves very quietly. Cassandra says quietly, "eighty-five. And you?"

"Ninety-nine."

Mace lets out a low whistle. And Cassandra says, while patting me on one shoulder. "Hey, you've survived the orphan home and every cruelty imaginable all these years Alyssa, even when so many would have given up. We all did. Look, I'm not saying be an overconfident bonehead like Mace-"

"Hey!" Mace says.

"All I'm saying is that you're a survivor. And if it is you, then please, do your damn best to win. And show these Capitol people that they don't control every bit of your destiny." This was the last thing Cassandra whispered to me before I was suddenly jostled in another direction by the now thickly gathered crowds.

At some point one of my index fingers are pricked and my fingerprint in blood collected somewhere, and then, I stand among the crowds of hundreds and hundreds of children and teenagers. All gathered around an enormous stage. On which a woman done up in so many feathers and jewels and layers of makeup that it is obvious she is from the Capitol, takes the stage, and shakes hands with the Mayor of District Nine, Alistair McCain.

Then, she begins to speak in a strong Capitol accent, "Welcome ladies and gentlemen, to the Reaping of the 73rd Annual Hunger Games. Before we begin, we have a special presentation brought to you by the Government of Panem."

And the presentation begins. It is the same every year, the same old garbage about the Districts not being appreciative enough of what the Capitol gave them in the early days of Panem, that they all turned against the Capitol who fed them, loved them (which if you ever come to realize what our current President is like, is even more garbage). These were called the Dark Days. War was waged on both sides, blood was shed, countless lives lost.

And then came the era of unprecedented peace, in which the Capitol swore that we would never know such unnecessary bloodshed again. Only to slap the Districts with the Hunger Games and every other cruelty they could have inflicted on us. And here we are, still being forced to sacrifice the children. Nothing has changed.

Once the presentation has ended, the Capitol woman says about the video, "So inspiring. So patriotic, it gives me goosebumps every time." Then she gets on with the business at hand. "Now then, the time has come to reap our tributes. The time has come to select one courageous young man and woman for the glorious honour of representing District Nine in the 73rd Hunger Games. As always, ladies first."

She walks over to the glass bowl on the right and extracts a small paper. She unfolds it and reads the name over the microphone for all to hear it.

"Alyssa Whitestone."


	7. Goodbyes

I just stand there for what feels like the longest time, with the feeling that everything is falling apart around me. Even though I had already been through what many would call hell and back living in the community orphan home, and even though I had been always hopeful that I would at least be able to escape forever my own reaping, it had all been for nothing. For the sins of our ancestors, we are still being punished. I should know by now that nothing in life is fair. And yet, I still feel trapped, cornered, screwed over. I am as good as walking to my own execution.

Somehow, I manage to pull myself together and I force myself to make the walk up to the stage on my own. It would be humiliating if any of the Peacekeepers had to march me up towards the stage. I wasn't going to have that. Nobody would volunteer as tribute in my place, because I am a lowly orphan without any known family. It is just me.

As soon as I am on the stage, the woman from the Capitol congratulates me, even though I don't see any point of that. And she says, "I am Henrietta Aster, and I will be your official escort from here until the moment you are to be escorted to the arena, as well as your chosen male counterpart. I'll explain it all later on the train."

Then she gets back to buisness. "Now, I would like you all to give a big round of applause for our female tribute from District Nine, Alyssa Whitestone." But the crowd stands silent, and no one applauds. It doesn't matter much. I am only an orphan, even now I don't matter much to anyone being a tribute, unless you count being yet another pawn in these evil, sadistic Games. Caretaker Grimes was right all along. But then I see the condemning looks on many of these faces, and I begin to wonder if even though I was always an orphan there are those in District Nine who don't condone this. Obviously something has changed.

"And now to choose our boy." Henrietta walks over to the glass bowl on the left. And she extracts a second paper. She unfolds the paper and reads it over the microphone.

"Jeremy Forbes."

Jeremy Forbes walks up to the stage. He is a stocky guy with curly dark hair who is no orphan. He doesn't bother to look at me. I can already tell what his attitude toward me will be. I am another filthy orphan, the lowest of the riff-raff of District Nine, and I really don't stand a chance, is what he probably thinks. A lot of kids here with families, particularly from any merchant's families do. But since we will in all probability be trying to off one another at some point in the next two weeks after this one, it is probably better this way.

But at urging from Henrietta, "Come on you two, you're both tributes now. You must shake hands." We finally stand face to face and we shake hands. Shortly after that, I am escorted into the District Nine Justice Building, and I am instructed to wait until the three minutes are up.

I don't expect anyone to say goodbye to me, so I sit silently on the couch, which is probably the fanciest thing I've ever even sat on in my life. And this waiting room is the most upscale place I've ever been so far. But then the doorknob turns and Cassandra, Mace, and Nathan all push their way in. Cassandra hugs me tightly. They are not supposed to be in here, Caretaker Grimes and Mrs. Briant have both forbidden it. They are each risking a beating and maybe worse coming to say good-bye to me. It is then that I realize that I do have somebody. Loyal friends.

"Oh Alyssa! This is such a nightmare!" But when she lets me go, she says, "I'm not going to cry, and I expect you to be stronger than that too. Remember what I said, do your damn best to win. No matter what those people in the Capitol throw at you in that arena, make sure to fight back with everything you've got, and above all, be brave, be smart, and stay alive. That goes for when you're up against any other tributes".

Cassandra then steps away as Mace also gives me a quick hug. "Alyssa, don't forget what Cass told you, and even if you don't move to kill, make sure that you at least give those other tributes hell for me. For us. After all, you give a good show, the Capitol will eat it all up. And with celebrity comes sponsors."

Finally, Nathan speaks up. "You won't be able to do this all on your own, Alyssa. No one who goes into that arena is, unless you're really good at camoflaging and hiding like those two morphlings from District Six who both won by staying hidden several Games ago. But they had plenty of woods, caves, and lots of foliage for cover in those Games. I have a feeling that this year will be very different than that. The point is, play to your strengths, but try to pick up other useful skills, get yourself some allies. And stay alive. You have to win."

"I will. I'll try." I say quietly. "I promise." Just as a peacekeeper comes in to say, "Time's up, get moving." As he ushers Cassandra, Mace, and Nathan out of the building, shutting the door, and making me feel more alone than I've ever been.


	8. Noah and Henrietta

The drive to the District Nine train station only took fifteen minutes from the square, but it seemed to feel like an eternity. I sat in the backseat with Jeremy, who didn't look the least bit pleased to be sitting anywhere in the company of a District Nine orphan since he was likely told by his parents that my parents were criminals and traitors who deserved everything they got from the Capitol. But he still didn't say anything, at least not so far as acknowledging my existence, anyway. Not that I really care, I tell myself.

As soon as we exit the car we follow Henrietta as she says, "Come along, the train awaits, and I have a feeling you're going to love what's inside." Jeremy and I step on board the train, and it looks like I have walked into a mansion in miniature.

Everywhere I look in our dining and lounge car are mahogany and velvet furnishings, fine crystal chandeliers, china plates and elegant silverware already set on the table to be used for dinner in a few hours. There are also mini-fridges which carry at least twenty different Capitol beverages, both fizzy and more nutritional, and machines where you just press a button and you get served anything you want if you'd rather have something warm to drink like coffee, hot chocolate, or tea.

On another table sits an assortment of the kind of treats I never could afford nor would have been allowed in District Nine. Sugary, decadent things, like fancy fruit jellies and chocolates filled with creams and caramels. There's actual bakery made bread, butter, tea biscuits, cheese, cold seafood served with a spicy looking red sauce for dipping, pastries filled with whipped cream, cupcakes frosted with chocolate icing or with vanilla coconut and tiny bite-sized morsels for tea cakes, with sophisticated and pretty edible decorations on top. There are also fruits like apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, and strawberries, as well as chunks and slices of different kinds of melons at the fruit bar.

I really just want to head into my rooms to be alone and begin thinking up a strategy for a while. But I can't, since Henrietta says, "Please stay a while, dinner will be served in just a few hours, and feel free to sample anything that is here for you. I will just go and freshen myself up in the powder-room. Noah should be in here any minute, he will be your mentor for the 73rd Hunger Games. I'll be back in a few." And Henrietta heads down toward the ladies' train bathroom.

"Typical Capitol woman, calling a ladies' bathroom a powder room. Still, we haven't even arrived in the Capitol and this is already an improvement over crappy one-horse District Nine." Jeremy says in a drawl. "These people know about class and culture. And most Capitolites don't have executed criminals for family."

Ignore him. Ignore him. I keep thinking to myself. But it's getting harder all the time. "Say, orphan girl, do you know anything at all about this mentor we're supposed to be getting?" Jeremy suddenly asks me. And all I decide to say is, "No, I don't know about him." And Jeremy smirks. "Of course you wouldn't. They wouldn't be teaching you much in the community orphan home in Nine, now would they? Still, I was at least hoping that I wouldn't be going up against such a total ignoramus."

"If you don't watch it, you'll be the first person I hunt down in that arena." I snap. Even though I would rather avoid having to kill anyone, I realize that at some point during the Games, somebody else will likely have to die at my hand, if I choose life over death. And I would choose life every time. "Please. I doubt if you could even pick up a mace or fight with a sword properly if your life depended on it. Or even manage to get someone with a knife. Your kind is always that pathetic, orphan."

Before I can respond in any way to this, our mentor enters the dining and lounge car and it is Noah Linwood. And I actually do know some things about him.

Noah also hails from District Nine, but he was born into one of the better-off classes in Nine to begin with, since his family owns the only jewelry shop back home. Linwood Jewelers. And his name was in the reaping so few times in comparison with any orphan that it never seemed like he was in any real danger.

That didn't stop them from calling a eighteen-year-old Noah's name out during the Reaping of the Sixty-Seventh Hunger Games, two years after District Four's very own playboy victor Finnick Odair won his Games. I was eleven years old at the time, and I was forced like everyone else in the orphan home to sit through the horrors of Noah's Games.

That was the year when the arena was built like a major jump back in time to Ancient Rome. And it was a particularly blood and gore filled Hunger Games. The careers of that year, particularly the guys, were especially well-practiced when it came to killing people in what had to be some of the most sadistic, disgusting and disturbing ways I have ever seen with those ancient styled weapons that they wielded.

I don't want to be too graphic, but it did involve several instances of spearing, decapitation, disembowelment, and even drawing and quartering, and of course, so many people in the Capitol still ate it up and even cheered for more of it. And I ended up with nightmares added to the already present nightmares from the abuse I suffered.

But while the careers had their fun picking off all of the other tributes that were the most easily hunted, they just kept on overlooking the fact that quiet, secretive, mysterious Noah from lowly District Nine was by far a greater threat than they had ever imagined in their arrogance. And he had chosen the District Seven boy and District Three girl as allies, and they were actually both very useful as allies to Noah. For as long as they lasted, anyway. They even made it to the final eight.

But in the end, it was just Noah against the last career standing, and the career was sleeping until Noah quietly crept up with a Roman dagger in hand and slit his throat before he was even awake enough to realize what was happening, let alone alert enough to start fighting. The cannon sounded, and Noah Linwood became District Nine's newest victor in recent years.

And now, Noah is here, a celebrated victor, and he is really good-looking, maybe not with the Finnick Odair kind of celebrated handsomeness or swagger but still, he is a better sight to look at than Haymitch Abernathy, who won the Second Quarter Quell, which was the fiftieth Anniversary of the Hunger Games.

Haymitch is the only victor from District Twelve known to still be living, and in that time he has very much sunken into the disease of alcoholism, because of the horrific things he'd seen in the arena, some of which were done by him.

But it was because of an underhanded and actually very clever stunt he pulled during the gruesome finale that cost him his whole family and his girlfriend, and they didn't even do anything wrong. It is a tragic lesson that leads me to realize that even though it may look like the big times on national television, being a victor is not as glorious as it seems. It scares me.

Noah then takes a seat at the table, and Jeremy and I decide to take two of the other chairs, sitting as far apart from each other as possible. "So you're this year's tributes from District Nine. What's your name, little girl?" Noah asks me. I say to him, "I'm not a little girl. My name is Alyssa Whitestone and I'm seventeen years old. I've already lived through more troubles than you can probably even imagine in those seventeen years, and now I'm here."

"Well ring-a-ding-ding." Noah says, his voice laced with sarcasm. "I've had to kill at least seven people just to survive my time in the arena, and the rest of it was no merry Roman banquet either. And your name?" He looks over to Jeremy. "I'm Jeremy Forbes. And I'm fourteen years old."

"All right, since you're both here and I'm your mentor here on in until the arena, first things first. The Capitol is nothing like what you're both used to. It is a glimmering, magnificent city of wealth and decadence. For this reason, it is very easy to lull yourselves into a false sense of security. Don't at any point do this to yourselves. Whatever you see around you now, however many luxuries will be at your fingertips, you'll still be going into that arena no matter what. Which is why you'll both need to come up with your own strategies."

To this, Jeremy says, "I already know how I'm going to play it, and I have no intention of letting that orphan girl know about it. I'm not going to waste time by sitting here and being told anything that I already know. I'm going to go and change into some actual clothes and throw these rags down the incinerator. But feel free to tell the orphan girl anything. From the looks of her, she'll need all the mentoring she can get."

And with that last snarky remark, Jeremy strode pompously out of the dining car toward the sleeping quarters. Henrietta immediately leaps up. "Wait now young man, you can't just use any bedroom. I must show you to yours!" And she hurries out as fast as she safely can on those almost ridiculously high heels.

"That kid is really heading up shit's creek. Is he always like that?" Noah asks me. And I answer with, "I don't really know him that well but I have to confess, he probably is."


	9. The Capitol

Eventually, I have been shown to my own private room where there was a very luxurious looking bed and my own bathroom in the smaller adjoining room. I decide to take a shower, since I felt like I could really use one before dinner, as well as a change of clothes. Jeremy was right about something, in comparison with the finery the Capitolites and even the victors wear, these are just rags. Once I undress and step into the shower I see not just a tap to turn for cold or warm water. There are at least twenty or so different buttons to push.

I decide to press a bright green button for fun and I am suddenly sprayed with not just warm water, but there is a foamy light green soap in it with a scent like green apples. So I lather up my hair and scrub every inch of me as much as I can. Then I press the rinse button and a spray of warm water washes away all the soap. After that, I press a white button and what feels like a very light, almost invisible lotion with a very coconutty fragrance is sprayed very gently and lightly from tiny openings all around and all over me, and a silver button, when pressed, detangles and dries my hair so thoroughly that when I touch it is so silky smooth that I don't even need to brush it.

I decide to wear the most comfortable looking black pants that I can find in my wardrobe and an interesting looking golden yellow short-sleeved top. Then I return to the dining and lounge car and take my seat at the table with Jeremy, Henrietta, and Noah.

And in a few minutes the servers come in and place several dishes of food down on the table. There's glazed baked ham and bacon- wrapped grilled steaks for meat, but there's also fillets of what may be salmon or trout in a creamy dill sauce, there's also a fluffy white grain which I happen to know is rice, coming from District Nine. I was just never allowed any of this particular grain for myself before. It appears to have scrambled eggs, bits of pork, peas, and green onions in it to give it some flavor. And there are some kind of crispy fried rolls with a garlicky vegetable meat filling and a sweet and sour orange sauce.

For vegetables, there's fluffy mashed potatoes with green onions in them,

mashed sweet potatoes, buttery corn on the cob, buttered peas, green beans in a light roasted red pepper sauce, and a large bowl of garden salad.

I realize fully only now how hungry I am, and not wanting to miss anything, I decide to try a bit of everything, being careful not to take too much of the richest foods on the table. Much of which will likely end up going to waste and there would be enough leftovers to feed many starving families in poverty back home.

There's always more than enough of everything in the Capitol, more than most of them even know what to do with, if this is an indication of what to expect. What do they even do with their time while they wait eagerly for every Hunger Games? Party? Dance? Drink? Gamble? The districts in contrast basically get the shaft, especially the poorest ones.

And I begin to wonder to myself what would happen if any or even all of the districts, just got fed up with doing all the dirty work. Fed up with all the pain and suffering and bitter losses they are forced to endure to keep the Capitol in comfort and prosperity with precious little to gain in return. Fed up with the Hunger Games, of sending their children off to be killed, of the lack of other freedoms, and human rights.

It would be one hell of an uprising, as Mace would say. It would probably be Snow's worst nightmare.

Jeremy and I tuck into our food (Noah appears to have a real meat tooth, while Henrietta has only taken a bit of the fish with some carrots and salad on the side without dressing ("It's for my waistline.") She tells us.

And for a while, we just sit quietly as we work our way through our dinner, which turns out to be every bit as delicious as it all looks. Christ, if Cassandra, Nathan and Mace could see me now! But then I begin to feel a twinge of homesickness. But I tell myself, stop it Alyssa. You can't afford the luxury of homesickness or to fall to pieces now. You must stay at the top of your game if you want to survive and make it back home.

Once the dinner plates and leftovers are cleared away, Henrietta says to us, "That was wonderful. Now, would any of you like me to call for some dessert?" And I say, "Not right now thank you. I couldn't eat another thing. Maybe later."

Jeremy sneers, "I'm surprised to hear you say that. Course I was surprised to see you even had table manners at all, or any kind of manners, really. God knows those filthy District Nine orphans at the local community home never seem the type. But it will take a lot more than basic politeness if you want to survive the Games, orphan girl."

Wow, stereotypical much Jeremy?

The truth is, that we were all basically expected to learn some degree of being civil in the orphan home, no matter how terrible life there was. And if any of us didn't learn fast enough for Mrs. Briant, we would suffer a beating from Caretaker Grimes, or we would be locked up for one or two days in our rooms. That, she would tell us, would ensure that even the most pathetic of us would let the lessons sink in. That little twerp has no idea what it was like.

Noah comes to my defence. "Now that's enough of that, and slow down, one thing at a time Jeremy. Since no one appears to be hungry for dessert, this is the perfect opportunity to turn on the T.V so you can learn something about the other tributes you'll be going up against."

That's right, I thought. The last six tributes from District Ten, Eleven, and Twelve had been reaped several hours and stops ago. So Noah turned on the T.V. and the first thing that appears is the golden eagle, which is the national symbol of Panem. And then there appears a middle-aged man of short stature and very golden hair tied back in a fancy pigtail. Even his eyebrows are gold. He is the Master of Ceremony in the Capitol, and has been interviewing the tributes of every Hunger Games publicly for twenty-some years.

His name is Caesar Flickerman. He always has his hair in different colours for every Hunger Games. As much as golden hair really isn't Caesar, in my honest opinion, at least he doesn't have red hair and eyebrows like he did the year of Noah's Games. He looked like he was bleeding profusely from the head.

"Good evening. I am Caesar Flickerman, and tonight I will bring you some gathered information on the tributes who will be presented before an adoring public in the Capitol tommorow evening. District One and Two looks to be promising as usual, with this year's crop of careers. From District One, we have Taffeta, age sixteen, and Roland, who is eighteen."

Taffeta and Roland are both blond and beautiful, almost as good looking as the brother and sister victors Cashmere and Gloss, and about as lethal beyond a shadow of a doubt. You almost wouldn't know it though, because of how angelic Taffeta appears before the cameras.

The District Two tributes are as dark-haired and green-eyed as the chosen careers from One are fair and blue-eyed. And they also look more the part of careers, especially the guy, Adonis. The girl, Emerald, looks completely bored, detached from it all, like she's thinking, God, the arena had better turn out to be worth putting up with this televised garbage.

Districts Three, Five, Six, Seven, and Eight aren't quite as memorable, and several of them are definitely looking a bit green and terrified, yet brave all the same. District Ten and Eleven's tributes look strong enough, and I see that sadly, the District Twelve tributes are so skinny as to be malnourished, and unremarkable, forgettable, to be overlooked. I have the feeling that they just aren't going to make it. It seems that those from District Twelve never do, not since Haymitch had won.

But it is the shy girl from District Four that I find it most impossible to forget. I don't think she can be any older than twelve. Her name is Marina, and the boy from Four, Jayden, is fifteen. Many people back home hate it when there's a kid only twelve who gets reaped especially, no matter what district they come from, because they think it's unfair. And I hate it too, I hate the whole thing, but there's nothing anyone can do. And that, for me, is the worst part of it.

The next morning, I am awakened by Henrietta knocking on my bedroom door as she says, "It's time to get up and get ready, breakfast is about to be served. And we will arrive in the Capitol in just two more hours." So I get out of the bed and I get dressed. I don't bother about taking a shower this morning.

Once I'm in the Capitol the first thing that will happen is that I will be placed in the hands of some of the best beauticians in the country, and then I'll have to meet my stylist, whoever it is. He or she will basically decide two things, what kind of costume I'll be wearing for the Tribute Parade tonight, and what my look will have to be for the interviews on the night before we are sent to the arena.

I have just finished my breakfast and I am still sipping from a cup of hot chocolate when I see through one of the train windows a place like I have never seen before. I see tall buildings, several of them at least a hundred stories high or maybe more, elegant mansions here and there, and they almost all seem to shine.

As we finally pull to a stop and disembark at the train station which is so massive and far cleaner than any place in District Nine, there are shouting crowds of people and the press waiting eagerly for us, taking pictures. Asking us a series of questions we don't answer. All of them dressed in the craziest get-ups, with freakishly styled wigs or garish tattoos and hair colours. There is no doubt about it.

This is the Capitol.


	10. The Tribute Parade

After I have spent a few hours of soaking in at least six different solutions, (of which the first was by far the worst), getting waxed, my eyebrows plucked to look a certain way, and my hair washed and conditioned and dried, I am dressed in a silken pale blue dress which just comes below my knees and matching flat but elegant shoes. After that I am taken to another room to meet my stylist.

She is a small woman with dark brown hair and dark eyes, and she is dressed more simply than most Capitolites, yet professionally. "Hi, it is nice to meet you. My name is Athena, and I am going to be your stylist. And it's a good thing you are here, because I have a few important things to show you, and other things to discuss, as well as getting started on your makeup and your costume for tonight. But first, let's each take a seat and have lunch together."

So I sit down, and Athena pushes a button on the table we are sitting at, and the food appears from underneath. There's a glass each for us of champagne (somehow it doesn't surprise me to find out they let kids drink alcohol in the Capitol).

There's also a generously filled platter for us to help ourselves from that contains different cheeses, some in cubes, others shaped like flowers which turn out to be spreadable, some cold meats and thinly sliced smoked salmon, caviar, thinly sliced cucumber and small pickled onions, olives, buttery flaky bread in the shape of crescents, and dark brown slices of bread which are flavored strongly with caraway, and green grapes.

After we have both had enough to eat, an Avox is summoned to take the leftovers away. I would be sympathetic, but something I have learned since I arrived in the Capitol is that it is forbidden for anyone to speak to an Avox unless it is to ask for something from them or tell them how to do their jobs.

"So you're Alyssa Whitestone. I once worked many years ago as a stylist to your mother's sister. Kayla Morgan fought very hard, and was very brave. So are you, if you're anything like your aunt. Or your parents." I suppose Athena might have pitied me over the fact that I am an orphan. And I wish that people wouldn't do this, particularly when they are from the Capitol and don't even know me.

"Well, I wouldn't know for sure, because I never knew my aunt. And I was only four when...when my parents died." I say to Athena. I don't feel like talking about any more of it to this tribute stylist. I was certain it would be too dangerous anyway. There are surveillance cameras hidden in many places in District Nine, so it stands to reason that there must be a hundred, even a thousand times more in the Capitol.

After that, I am introduced to my makeup team, Thelonius, Demetra, and Annetta, my measurements are all taken, and they are all babbling in the same narrow-minded chatter I have come to expect from most Capitolites as they get to work with me.

I sit in front of a large mirror as they apply my makeup, and line my eyes with black kohl, and they brush lightly a shiny powder all over my face which lends an almost ethereal golden glow. It's like they are making me look like someone from the ancient world.

I am so curious about it all that I ask them questions about my parade costume as they begin styling my hair by braiding my hair into hundreds of little braids with several tiny gold, red, blue, and green beads. But Annetta says to me, "I'm afraid you'll have to wait until Athena presents you with your costume after you're finished with us. But I can assure you, Alyssa, that after tonight, if all goes according to plan, you and the boy from Nine will be the tributes on everyone's minds and the words on everyone's lips."

"Yes, but I don't see how. I mean District Nine citizens are mainly grain farmers, and factory workers who produce grain products. Except for the merchant upper-class, and the mayor, they're all just ordinary working-class people."

And Thelonius says, "Yes, we know that Alyssa. But this year, Athena has decided that we will be doing something different. Something that won't reflect the major industry of District Nine so much, but rather, something that will lend some allusion to the arena itself, and what the audience can look forward to, as well as what you will be facing in your Games."

Oh joy, I thought. The Capitolites only have to sit safely and watch the Games, while we're the ones who, by the end of those gruesome two weeks will all be dead, gone forever except for one. And already, it's almost like they're banking somehow on it being me. Or perhaps Jeremy. Which doesn't make any sense because one, they haven't seen us yet in the thick of the Games, and two, they haven't even seen what we're best at in training. Everyone in Panem knows it's the Careers who have been specially trained for this, trained to murder. Shouldn't they be the ones that are the most unforgettable?

But then I remembered something else, that the Careers also tend to be arrogant. And arrogance can be a huge disadvantage, as Noah's Hunger Games have already proven to me. I have to come up with a plan. That's all. And I have to make sure that whatever the strategy is, that I am unforgettable.

It is then that I decide to play at being just about everything the Careers aren't. I refuse to wash out completely in the training, since I have to learn in order to survive.

But for the show I intend to play up the sad-unfortunate-orphan-cornered-by cruel-circumstance-from-District-Nine card for all it's worth, so that when we get into the arena, and it comes time for me to take my opponents out, they won't even know what hit them. It worked for Johanna Mason to play at being prissy, snivelling and mediocre only to show herself as wickedly lethal in the arena during the 71st Hunger Games. I just hope my strategy works for me, that everyone in the Capitol loves a sob story as much as they love their glamor, blood, and guts.

Once the final intricate braid is done into my hair, Athena arrives and says,

"Alyssa, come into the girl's costume room. It's your turn to get dressed up for the Tribute Parade." She says. "I get to see my costume at last! I never had anything this good in District Nine. All that I want is to make sure I live up to it and make a good impression." I say, trying to sound as emotionally touched while on the verge of tears as possible. I think it works, because Athena says, "Hey come on, I know you're worth it. You are going to be going out in your chariot as a Queen of Egypt alongside a wise and mighty Pharoah after all."

I have to fight to repress a few giggles. Jeremy Forbes, a wise and mighty Pharaoh? More like a swollen head full of hot air. But I don't say this out loud. Once I am dressed in my costume, I follow Athena into a smaller, adjoining room with a mirror on the wall for me to look in. And as soon as I see myself, I realize a few things. Some of them very important.

One: That I am radiant as the sun, dressed as a Queen of Egypt.

Two: The audience won't be able to tear their eyes away from me.

Three: That with luck, I might outshine even the Careers and snap up a few sponsors willing to send out donations and aid to me in the arena.

And four: The arena will be just like Ancient Egypt. This means it will most certainly hold a scorching, blistering desert. Which also means for an orphan from District Nine, the battle will really be on.

I then hear an announcement over the intercom. "Tributes report to your assigned chariots. The Tribute Parade will commence in fifteen minutes."

"I guess I have to go." And Jeremy pops his head in from the door leading to the boys' changing room and says in his usual snarky manner, "Obviously, they've just made an announcement about it, you moron." A few seconds after he steps out in the costume of a Pharoah, complete with an enormous headdress on which sits a solid gold cobra. The Capitol will spare no expense when it comes to these Games that they love. Not even on the tiniest details of tribute costumes. It is beyond repulsive.

At some point while we are waiting for the signal to climb onto our chariot, I spot Noah, and he is looking right at me, with a certain intensity that I'm not sure he should have when he sees me. It makes me a little uncomfortable.

But then I also see Adonis, and the tall, muscled, dangerous looking Career from District Two also shot me a look as he walks by us with Emerald, both dressed as two sword-wielding samurai. But this look isn't an admiring one like Noah gave me, but a look that chills me to the bone. It is a predatory, bloodthirsty look.

I knew I would have to be wary of the Careers before. Now I'm certain I will have to be on my guard, since that is the message Adonis has made clear with that one look. That they would be coming to get me in the arena if I stole their thunder on this night or any night before the actual Games.

I climbed quickly on board the chariot and Jeremy climbed on beside me. "What's the matter orphan girl? Did the big bad Careers frighten you? You should be afraid. I don't think you're going to last five minutes in these Games."

"Shut up Jeremy!" I snap. Then, Noah approaches our chariot. "Easy, Alyssa." He says to me quietly, with a faint husk in his voice. And we turn around to look at him. "I expect you to both get along on this night even though you will soon be fighting for your lives. That means you, O Mighty Pharoah." Jeremy rolls his eyes.

"Alyssa," His face shows just the faintest hint of a smile, "Hold your head up high, and proud, and make sure to knock them dead." His warm, firm hand gently brushes one of mine, whether intentional or by accident I can't be certain. All I know is that I felt a strange sort of warmth. Especially when I remember how Noah looked at me as I went to my chariot. "I will." I only barely just manage to get out, and Noah leaves us for the bleachers to find and take his seat among the other mentors.

The chariots in front of us all lurch forward, and ours does the same. And our magnificent black horses continue to pull us around the Presidential Square as we emerge from the chariot stable. And I can see and hear the audiences, cheering and screaming as we move past them, and our national anthem, the Horn of Plenty blares once we have made it to the Capitol City Square, everyone else is standing, silent as it plays, and we stand silent. Once the anthem is finished, I look up to see him.

President Coriolanus Snow stands before us on the Public Presidential Stage, used only during every Tribute Parade by Snow. He is a largely proportioned, balding, white-haired old man with an equally white beard probably well into his late seventies or early eighties, and he is dressed immaculately in a formal Presidential outfit, with a white rose pinned over his chest to the right which even from here looks too perfect to be completely natural. All I can think as I stand as if frozen, staring at him is, you're the reason my parents and thousands of others, including many children are dead, you poisonous, evil...

But then he speaks in a booming voice, and my train of thought has been broken. "Welcome, welcome! Tributes, we welcome you to our glorious Capitol, and we salute your courage and your sacrifice. And we wish you happy Hunger Games. And may the odds be ever in your favor!" The crowds gathered to watch all applaud for the President, and tributes alike, as, one by one, we begin to depart to go back to the Tribute Living Center.


	11. A Parting of Ways

As soon as Jeremy and I have returned from the Tribute Parade, Henrietta, Noah, and Athena are all waiting for us. "You were both phenomenal!" Athena tells us. "Everyone is calling you Alyssa of Nine now, well, it was really Caesar who called you that first in front of the entire country. But now everyone, and I mean everyone knows who you are. And Jeremy, bravo to you as well!"

And from the outside, I can still hear hundreds of people cheering and chanting, "Alyssa! Alyssa! Alyssa!" Who would have guessed that this is how things would be turning out so far? But what do they know about me really, other than my name, or really, a name they gave to me? Alyssa Whitestone is who I really am. Not Alyssa of Nine or anything they mean by it. I am not just another piece in their Games, even though that is exactly what they've made me. I hate this place.

Noah, being the mentor, then says to us, "You both did well enough tonight. But this is only the beginning of these Games you have to play. Now tommorow, you will begin your training. During which time you will both be put to yet another test. What this means is that you will have to find some potential allies. I will explain more about this in your apartments. Shall we?"

And Jeremy and I both follow Noah and the others as we step into a glass elevator, the likes of which I have never used before. Back home, the only people who were allowed to use elevators were the people who worked in the factories, and I knew even without setting foot in one that they were rickety, slow, and old.

If we went on field trips to the granaries or factories (which was always mandatory back home since we are expected to begin learning the trades as early as possible, we always had to take the stairs, since Caretaker Grimes once said to me and Cassandra, "You're orphans, you don't have any families, jobs, money, or even decency to speak of. The stairways are good enough for you." We had to fend for ourselves while the people in the Capitol always had all of this.

I have to admit that it was kind of fascinating though. With one push of the button that said '9' on it, we shot quickly and smoothly upward until we reached the ninth floor. And once we were there, another Avox opened the door to our living quarters. The furniture is very Capitolised, and there is a so-called kitchen where you don't even have to cook. All you have to do is place an order by a hole in the wall for what you want and in a matter of a few seconds the food is served to you.

There are orange and yellow lights suspended from the ceiling in the dining and entertainment rooms, and similar blue and green lights in my bedroom. The bed is enormous and soft and luxurious, and the adjoining bathroom has a shower and a bathtub so large that I could swim in it. I imagine most anybody from District Four in particular would love it.

My wardrobe isn't so much a single closet as it is a walk-in changing room with clothes and shoes and matching accessories for the day on one side, and on the other side are my evening clothes. But none of those dresses are what I will be wearing on the night of our interviews. That, like my parade costume, will be determined by Athena.

There are also different sets of training uniforms, which is something I will have to wear for tommorow. I decide to unbraid my hair and I shower mainly to wash away all of the makeup and gold glimmer that Annetta and Demetra had brushed on me earlier, and I decide to wear a red hooded sweater and black pants since I'm not really going to be going anywhere else for tonight.

There would be zero chance of any escape, there are even forcefields that will bounce anyone back onto the balcony if they should get any ideas of trying to jump. Plus the cameras and guards. We'll be going into that arena no matter what shape we're in, no matter how scared we really are.

I have just put my hair up in a simple ponytail when I hear a knock at the door and Henrietta saying, "Dinner's on the table." And I sit down with the others at the dining table. For dinner tonight there is roasted pheasant, roasted baby potatoes, roast beef, steamed broccoli, asparagus, horseradish sauce, and spicy parsnips, as well as raw baby spinach salad with chopped nuts, wedges of small oranges, and a specially made (and rather pungent) vinaigrette.

There is red and white wine, cold spring water supposedly imported from the mountains of District Two, or hot chocolate to drink. And we each have dark chocolate covered strawberries and vanilla ice cream with golden honey and pistachios on top for dessert. I'm pretty sure by this point that ice cream is my favorite dessert now.

Once we sit back in our chairs, having eaten enough to be content, Noah begins to tell us exactly what we are to expect as we begin training and what we should be looking for in our allies. I say flatly to this, "There is no way that I'm going to have Adonis or Emerald as allies. And Taffeta and Roland I didn't see much of yet in person, but I'm sure they're just as bad as the other Careers. I'm already thinking about Marina and Jayden from District Four, and maybe the boy from District Seven if they're interested."

Jeremy snorts at this, "Only you would be considering them over the very best. The Careers wouldn't even mix with the likes of you, since it's not their game. But, I might just be able to find a place within their inner circles in the Games. That way, I'll have an advantage most of the other tributes won't."

"Now just hold on, Jeremy, don't be cocky. Even if the Careers accept you as an ally, and I am only saying if, brute force and mindless bloodlust alone are not enough to win these Games. You'll need to have an array of survival skills handy, and if you don't already, you'd better hope to God that you learn some quickly." Noah says grimly. "Otherwise it could very easily mean game over for you, and the only way you'll be going home in that instance is in a wood casket."

Jeremy just stares at Noah, at first looking embarassed, even incensed but then the cold, unreadable look returns to his features a moment later. Then he stands up from his seat and says, "I think I'm done here for tonight. I have a hunch that you clearly favour the orphan girl, or should I say, Alyssa of Nine, you and everyone else here. I have no idea why you do, but from here on in I request to be trained separately from her the entire time. I know exactly what I'm going to do, and I'm going to do it. It's every tribute for themselves in the end." Then he looks at me. "Nice job, you've even got our mentor wrapped around your fingers. Good luck. You'll be needing it."

And before I can formulate a response, Jeremy has shut himself up in his room.

"You're absolutely certain that you never actually cared about what happened to Jeremy Forbes at the time, somewhere deep Miss Whitestone?" Mr. Tasselgrove asks me.

"Maybe not so much then. What you have to understand is, that I had never felt more alone and vulnerable at the time, even though I had the reassurances from my stylist, make-up team, and Noah that I would find my ways to survive. Yet, I also knew enough to remind myself that survival was the only real option, the only goal for me in my first Hunger Games, and later, the second."

"We'll just focus on the events of the 73rd Hunger Games for now, if you please, Miss Whitestone." Mr. Tasselgrove says, as he continues to jot these things down. And decide to continue on with everything that happened. "The next morning was the first day of training at the Tribute Center, and I had been one of the first tributes to show up..."


	12. Training and Scores

Later on that night, I try to get some sleep, but I end up having a dream.

I am standing in a vast wheat field, and the sky above is clear and blue. At first it seems like I am alone. But then I hear a strangely familiar voice calling my name. "Alyssa! Come here sweetie, it's us!" And I see them.

"Mom! Dad!" And I run to them. "Mom, I missed you so much, I missed both of you. They took you away to the Capitol..."

"We're not in the Capitol anymore. We are no longer prisoners of Snow. We're home to stay, and that's all that matters." And just before I can follow them, I suddenly can't move, and the sky and landscape turns gray. And for some reason, an old, white-haired old man is looking at me with sadistic amusement, and he is wearing a white rose on his lapel. President Snow.

"Miss Whitestone, I may have decided to let your parents go free, but they have had to make me a bargain, that I should take you away instead. From this day forth, you belong to me. Just as much as the other tributes did until you decided to kill them. You see, the odds are never really in anyone's favor, except for the Capitol, and mine. If you still refuse to believe me, just look at your hands and your dress..." And to my horror, my hands and my dress are all stained with blood.

"Look around you!" The President taunts, and I see the bodies, not just of Jeremy, the Careers, and the other tributes, but of Mace, Nathan, Cassandra, Natasha, Athena, my makeup crew, Noah Linwood, and even my parents. All bloody, all mutilated, all dead, it seemed, at my hand. No. No!

I wake up gasping, drenched with sweat, almost screaming. It was a grizzly nightmare, though nothing compared to what I know I will have to face in reality. I put on a shimmering and floaty robe and I decide to step out onto the balcony. I can still hear hundreds and hundreds of Capitolites cheering down there. It turns out that I am not the only one on the balcony either.

I see Noah, obviously deep in contemplation, and I decide to sit in the chair next to him. "Hi." I say, to get his attention. He looks at me and says, Hey, you have another big day ahead of you tommorow. You should be in bed."

"Yeah well, I guess that's not going to happen for either of us right now." I say. "We both got a pretty rotten deal, huh? Still, you have to survive this. And I have a very good idea that you will." Noah says.

"How can you? Before the reaping I was just another unimportant girl with no family in District Nine. Now everywhere I turn out there they shout, "It's Alyssa of Nine!" It's always that way now. They don't know me and they certainly don't own me. As far as I know, some of them were responsible for my parent's deaths. And they certainly were for what happened to my Aunt.

When Snow looked down on us at the Tribute Parade, he looked at me, as though to tell me that he and his precious Capitol made me, and they could break me or even end my life without hesitating like they did to my parents. I really hate him for that."

Noah suddenly looked over his shoulder to make sure nobody else came around to listen in on us, before turning to me with a stern expression.

"Alyssa, I would suggest that you hold your tongue and avoid speaking about such things in the future. Even high on this balcony, we aren't a hundred percent safe. That's just the way it is, and there's nothing anyone can do about it." So, I decide not to say anything more about what I really think about President Snow or the Capitol or anything that is wrong with Panem.

"I guess that I really should try to get some sleep. I'll-I'll see you tomorrow." And just as I turn to go back into our living quarters, back to my room, Noah says, the hard expression now gone from his face, "Alyssa, make sure to show them what you're made of in the training. It's going to be okay."

And I go back inside, back to my room. But even though Noah tells me that he is so certain that I will make it, I know that I won't be getting much sleep tonight.

When I step out of the elevator into the training area the next morning, I see that the only other tributes here this early beside me are the Careers. Taffeta, Roland, Adonis, and Emerald. And all of them are looking at me as I take a seat to wait like I am the most disgusting creature imaginable to them. I know why, it's because of my mesmerising Tribute Parade entrance. That as spectacular as the Careers were clearly meant to appear, I have outshone them all as a Queen of Egypt. As Alyssa of Nine.

And they all hate me for that, most likely enough to cut me into a hundred bloody pieces. Great.

Within about another ten minutes, the other tributes begin showing up, and I see Jeremy, who has chosen to sit as far away from me as possible in this waiting area, and Jayden and Marina, the tributes from District Four sit nearer to both tributes from Five. But when Marina sees me, she wears a shy smile.

At a quarter to nine, everyone is here, a tall, athletic looking woman arrives right on schedule. Before any of us are even allowed to set foot in any of the stations, she gives us all a quick talking to.

"Welcome tributes, to the training center for the 73rd Annual Hunger Games. My name is Atala, and I will be one of your supervisors. Before letting you begin your training, there are some very important rules for you to follow. First, no fighting with the other tributes will be permitted until you are within the confines of the arena. If you wish to practice your combat and weaponry skills, there will be instructors available to work with you.

However, my advice is, don't just grab the weapons and ignore the survival skills. While it is a certainty that another tribute will come after you with a sword, knife, or any other weapons available, the survival skills are vital in determining who out of the 24 of you will ultimately emerge from these Games alive. Several of you will die violent deaths but several more of you will die from natural causes. Ten percent from infection, twenty percent from dehydration or starvation.

Exposure can kill as easily as a knife, and knowing how to properly fish, hunt, or ensnare a wild animal and distinguishing between edible and medicinal berries and plants from what can sound your cannon in less than a minute can mean all the difference between life and death. But in the end, only one of you will live and bear the crown of a victor. Only one of you can survive."

As soon as we are allowed to get to work, I decide to begin with the station where they instruct us on how to make basic snares and traps to catch small animals as a source of food. I hear a sudden thump from over at the climbing station. The District Twelve boy was attempting to use only his arms to get across a monkey bar but lost his grip and fell.

The boy from Twelve got back up on his feet before the District Twelve girl could help him. "Please, I don't want this to look more bad than it already does." I hear him say, while over by the weapons, Jeremy, Emerald, and Roland snicker. Adonis shakes his head and says, "I'm telling you, District Twelve just keeps on getting more pathetic every year!"

Before any of the Careers can notice I have been listening in, I quickly turn my focus back on practicing my knot tying skills, but my ears are still tuned in to what the Careers are saying. It seems that Jeremy is wasting no time in sucking up to Adonis and Emerald.

"Well, what can you possibly expect? District Twelve is poor, filthy, and the biggest joke of Panem. I don't know why they didn't just bomb it like they did with Thirteen. Oh right, coal, about the only useful thing that comes out of Twelve. And the only mentor that they have used to be good but is now pretty much useless. He's a filthy, foul-smelling, cantankerous drunk."

So now Jeremy's badmouthing Haymitch behind his back. That is so mature. As irksome as Jeremy is being right now though, even I had to admit to myself that Haymitch, judging by what I have seen of him on television, has really let himself go in one of the worst ways humanly possible. I couldn't imagine myself ever living the rest of my life in such a way, because it just isn't living at all.

But unless I find a way to survive this, I won't even live to find out what happens post-Games, so I get back to work, just as Adonis and Emerald agree after seeing Jeremy throw the weights to knock down a few targets that he just may have potential as an ally.

Jeremy and I return for dinner to the ninth floor of the tribute living quarters after plenty of hard work of training for the day. But as we quickly find out over the meal (lamb stew with dried plums over wild rice, sweet, crisp apples stuffed with curried chicken salad, creamy tomato soup, pasta shaped like shells baked with butter, ham, and cheese, and bitter green salad with peach slices and tarragon dressing to choose from) what we practice during the daytime training is only half of what we have to be prepared for.

The evening training sessions, Noah and Henrietta inform us, are to be dedicated to learning the etiquette, proper posture, and what fashion dos and dont's exist in the Capitol, ("and there are a thousand of the dont's!") Henrietta tells us.

We have to learn to distinguish the differences between daytime clothes and an evening wardrobe, how to walk the walk, and how to talk the talk, so that when it comes time for our interviews, we don't end up making fools of ourselves in front of Caesar, the President, and the rest of Panem. Henrietta will be instructing us on manners, protocol, and the art of sophisticated conversations, Athena will instruct us on posture, balance, and fashion 101, and Noah will help us to brush up on our strategies.

"And you are going to have to do this too Jeremy. No buts about it!" Noah yells when Jeremy tries to refuse this last. "You may think that you're ready to go now that the Careers are considering allying themselves with you. But let me tell you something, you're not in District Nine anymore. The public image you project counts for everything now that you are a tribute."

And so our first evening lessons begin at six-thirty and end at nine in the evening, with Jeremy frustrated and shutting himself up in his room and Noah cursing like a Career by the end of it, and me finally retiring for a much needed soak in my bathtub before I go to bed.

By the time it is Friday, Noah escorts us both to the ground floor to sit and wait with the other tributes until our names are called. District One will be the first ones called, and District Twelve will of course be the last. Jeremy and I are from District Nine so we will be some of the last ones left, and I will go in for my individual final assessment before him. None of the tributes who have already gone in will be coming back here, so the number of us gradually dwindles in the waiting room.

Finally, they call my name over the intercom. "Alyssa Whitestone, please report for your individual final assessment." This is it, no turning back. Time to show the Gamemakers what you can do.

As soon as I walk into the assessment room, I see them all sitting comfortably in the Gamemakers' box in front of me, and Seneca Crane, the current Head Gamemaker, a tall, thin man in a deep burgundy outfit and a beard which appears to be styled to look like cresting waves, says to me, "Alyssa Whitestone, you have ten minutes to present your chosen skill. Good luck to you."

And so I spend the next ten minutes using any weapons available to me to destroy a bunch of dummies, while pretending that they are all equally repulsive clones of Snow.

By the time Jeremy and I have returned to our living quarters, Noah, Henrietta, Athena, Thelonius, Demetra, and Annetta are all waiting for us. Several Avox servants are rushing to and fro to get the table all set up and the drinks out. Henrietta explains it all. "We have already ordered everything for dinner and dessert. And there will also be a very special cake for both of you. But while we are waiting, we should go sit in the entertainment lounge and watch as Caesar announces the scores." So this is what we do.

"Good evening." Caesar Flickerman says as he appears on the screen. "This is the moment you have all been waiting for, as we announce the scores garnered by each of this year's beloved tributes..."

Taffeta gets an eight, which, while it isn't a bad score, is definitely not as high up as what is generally expected from a Career tribute. That could damage some of her advantages, as Caesar says himself.

Roland gets a ten. Adonis and Emerald also each get a ten. The tributes from Three each pull a nine, Jayden from Four gets a seven, while Marina gets an eight.

Five, Six, Seven, and Eight all have acceptable scores, and then,

"From District Nine, our mighty Pharoah Jeremy Forbes, has been blessed with a score of...nine." Caesar announces. Thelonius says to Jeremy, "Good work Jeremy, that's our boy."

"And for our golden Queen of the Pyramids, Alyssa Whitestone, with a score of...eleven."


	13. Interviews with Caesar

At first, everyone else in the room is deadly quiet, so that if a pin dropped you could hear it. And then, they all begin to congratulate me. "Alyssa! Well done, an eleven is practically unheard of in the whole history of the Games. The first tribute to score an eleven was old Mags herself. Of course, she was just a young girl then, but she won it. I see it as a good sign." Thelonius says. "That Alyssa of Nine shall prosper!"

I don't think I would call it true prosperity personally, since the Hunger Games can twist and warp you and turn you into a different version of yourself that you should pray never to become. The damage it causes can last a lifetime, even if you survive it. Like Haymitch, even various other victors from other districts, who have even turned to drugs like morphling just to numb out the pain because their personal demons are many. And Annie Cresta who won just four years ago, they say she went off the deep end near the end of her Games, and she had never been right since. Why do they keep insisting the victors win anyway? Nobody ever wins the Games.

Jeremy is the only one who doesn't congratulate me, and isn't the least bit happy that I had gotten a higher score than him and even all of the Careers. The Careers are probably all livid now. They'll be hunting me in the arena for sure. For now, I make a brave attempt to push all my worries aside. "This calls for a celebration." Noah says, for once in cheerful spirits. "Let's all sit in at the table, the food is all here." Waiting for us on the table, are different breads, cheeses, and grapes to begin with, and there are also mountains of hot grain with rich and flavorful tomato meat sauce, minted lamb, spicy beef and chicken that had been slow roasted for hours on a spit and sliced thinly, roasted tiny potatoes that come served with a creamy, thick white garlic sauce to eat with them, and even delicious, buttery tails of lobster. Which by the way is quite possibly among the best things I have ever eaten in my life.

For dessert are noodle cakes sticky with honey and garnished with chopped nuts, and a stunningly beautiful cake with edible gold decoration and white chocolate buttercream for frosting, the cake sponge itself is layered with marzipan and it is lemon-and-brandy flavoured. To think, once I'm in the arena it will be back to rough living and scratching and scraping in any way I can to survive, assuming I will be the lone survivor. I decide I might as well enjoy it all while I can. And I hope that by the interview tommorow night, I will have moved the audience and any potential sponsors alike.

The next evening we are each lined up in order according to our district number, and I am wearing a light and silky sleeveless white dress with golden stilettos that match the golden sash and the gold glimmer of my eyeshadow. Jeremy is dressed in a black shirt, black pants, and a burgundy colored blazer with golden stripes. All of the other girls also have very glamorous dresses to wear as well. We have all once again been made to look pretty so the Capitol can feast their eyes before the real fun for them, and the slaughter for us begins. Disgusting.

Taffeta is the very first tribute to be called out onto the interview stage. She is of course, angelic but sassy, and much of the audience seems captivated. Roland plays up the uber-charming heartthrob from District One card. Emerald is dripping with sarcasm and her own well-learned brand of sharp-tongued humour when she takes the stage, and Adonis proudly boasts that he's vicious, mean, and he's a killing machine that will give the Capitol and the rest of Panem a guaranteed 'hell of a show' in that arena. Typical Careers.

The District Three tributes aren't particularly memorable in comparison unfortunately, and just can't hold a candle to the Careers. Marina from District Four tells everyone that she is a fast learner when it comes to survival skills, that she may not look like much, but that she shouldn't be underestimated.

"I wouldn't underestimate you in a million years." Caesar says to her. "And neither will any of you right?" He loudly asks the audience, which cheers and applauds. "I thought not! They love you! They adore you! See that Marina?"

Caesar then gives his boisterous trademark chuckle that grates on my nerves and makes me wish that I could slap him senseless or worse. The man pretends he's our friend, like he genuinely cares about our fates and that we will all be forced to kill or be killed, and that he sympathises with all of us.

But for the Caesars of the world, it is really just part of the show, part of a generous paycheck. And he clearly still believes that a television show that requires children to turn on and murder one another is the greatest spectacle on Earth. He's sick, twisted, demented. And I still have no choice but to play along with it all.

Jayden goes on the stage after Marina, and it turns out that he is in fact one of her cousins, and he is gallantly protective, determined to do everything he can to make sure Marina at least, makes it out of these Games alive and goes home a victor, even if that means his own imminent demise. "It isn't a matter of choice," Jayden says to Caesar and to the country. "I will do whatever I can, and if that means I must die, then I will die bravely and with pride, knowing the sacrifice I have made for Marina."

"I would have expected no less from you Jayden." Caesar replies. "Oh, a cousin's love. It touches me. It touches me deeply hearing this, and I think our audience here tonight can agree." And Caesar deftly brushes away a few crocodile tears and I worry.

Whatever the outcome of Jayden's self-sacrificing promise is, I have a terrible feeling that the Gamemakers will now be under strict orders by President Snow to make sure in some cruel way that it is Marina who will be the first District Four tribute to go.

The Careers could even now be thinking about this themselves, because they just don't know any better. It is then that I realize, I have to be Marina's and Jayden's ally for as long as I can be. It is now somehow more important to me than ever. I want to cry, I want to scream, curse, rage about it, I am so angry, not at these two ill-fated cousins, not even at the Careers, though I will still have to keep my distance from them, but I'm angry at the Capitol, at Snow. But I force myself to stay under control.

District Five, Six, then Seven are called out in turn, and Matthew Irving from District Seven plays at being quite the good-natured, funny guy. But if he is every bit as skillful with an ax as he claims he is, he could be about as lethal with one as Johanna Mason. He might possibly be persuaded into becoming another ally of mine in the arena. He'll have to be willing to accept Marina and Jayden as part of the package though.

Eight also has their turn, both Rhonda and Wool, and then...

"Ladies and Gentlemen, you know about her, you've heard whispers of her up and down the Capitol that she is a glorious Queen of the Pyramids, you've even been dazzled by her as she rode into town on her noble chariot with her mighty Pharoah! Give a warm round of applause for our regal golden beauty, Alyssa Whitestone!" Caesar booms out to the audience and laughs again. And the audience applauds me as I walk out on the stage in front of them.

Caesar beckons for me to sit in the white chair next to his as he also sits. "Alyssa, how privileged we are to finally meet you up close and in person. There must be many fans of yours in the audience, particularly many young gentlemen who must surely be captivated by you, hahaha. I know I certainly am. Is she not more stunning in person, guys only give an answer?" He asks, and I hear a bunch of Capitol guys shout an enthusiastic 'Hell yes!" And many even whistle. Caesar lets out another laugh.

Caesar Flickerman, a middle-aged, overdressed dwarf of a Capitol lapdog, captivated by me? The thought of that almost makes me want to barf. Of course, that could also in part be because of nerves.

"Now Alyssa, we only have a few minutes for this interview. So, if I may ask you, did you know, that several years ago, your very own Aunt was also once a tribute from District Nine, and that it was I who interviewed her on the eve of the 50th Hunger Games?"

"Yes, I did know. Athena mentioned working with her many years ago as her stylist." I answer, and Caesar says, "I thought she might bring her up, naturally. Quite a family tragedy, and quite the legacy. And your parents, I'm very sorry to discover, you had been torn away from and lost as a small child. A sad, messy buisness."

And many in the audience let out a long moan of expressional regret, though I doubt if very many of them can sincerely be sorry at all. "How has it been, growing up to realize that your own parents had really been nothing more than radicals, criminals who attempted to start an uprising, and in doing so, had to pay the price for their arrogant foolishness?" Caesar then asks me. It is like Caesar slapped me in the face with those callous words. For a few seconds, I am unable to speak, I just stare at Caesar, feeling a mixture of disgust and outrage.

"Alyssa, Earth to Alyssa!" Caesar chuckles. "I was just asking you about your parents, and about your thoughts on what had really happened to them?" And I come back to the present and I finally answer him. "It was a terrible shocker, it was certainly devastating for me to learn about that mess. You see, when you're an orphan as I am, you grow up just hoping for a while, young as I was when I lost them, that someday they might still come back to rescue you, and if not them then somebody else who cares.

Then when you come to terms with the fact that they aren't coming back, you begin to live with the belief, that's really a desperate kind of hope, and you struggle to hold on to it, that they were at least good, decent people who just...just fell into hard times, and then couldn't find any way out. But to hear that they were nothing but the worst kind of criminals-" I put on a show of crocodile tears of my own, even taking a tissue offered me by Caesar to 'dry my eyes.' Two can play at that game.

"Oh, how I sympathize with you Alyssa, I think the hearts of everyone in the Capitol tonight are going out to you. But you are not like your parents. You I'm sure, having battled to finally overcome the stigma and disgrace of your past, are going to discover your own way of fighting through this, can we both agree?"

"Y-yes. Caesar, I say yes, we can both agree." And finally, at this exact moment, I choose to crack a smile at all the people in the audience, who cheer. Some of them I can hear yelling things like, "We don't care about your past Alyssa! We love you as you are! So get in that arena and slay them all. Literally!"

Just then, the buzzer goes off. "Oh, I'm afraid that this is where we must part." Caesar says dramatically. "Farewell, Alyssa, and I wish you the best of luck." And he takes one of my hands and gives it a quick, light, kiss. But it makes my skin crawl.

Then he stands with me and raises that same arm up, my hand still held in his. "Alyssa of Nine!" He yells, and the audience applauds. And, not wanting to stay on that stage for a moment longer with that detestable man, I leave for the backstage area, just as Jeremy is about to enter for his interview.


	14. Jeremy's Interview

Once I am backstage, I watch Jeremy's interview on the television screen.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Let's hear it for Jeremy Forbes!" Caesar says loudly, once again with that stupid laugh. Jeremy struts with obvious self-confidence onto the stage and takes his seat before even waiting for Caesar to tell him to be seated.

"Good evening to you all in the Capitol and across Panem, and to you Caesar, my main man." Jeremy says. Caesar says, "My, my, I can see that someone is nothing short of thrilled to be here. Jeremy, I won't beat around the bush since our time here is limited. Alyssa Whitestone, I think you and I can agree, is a remarkable young lady, and very desirable. Is there anything going on between the two of you, possibly romantic?"

Jeremy doesn't waste any time in answering. "Are you kidding me? I wouldn't be interested in an orphan like her no matter what she looks like, nor what small talents she possesses. Her parents were criminals, and you know what they say, the apple never falls far from the tree.

If you thought this was possible because of how we were presented at the Tribute Parade six days ago, I'm afraid you've been mistaken. Though I'm sure that's not very often the case. Everyone thinks she's special, a shoe-in for the victory, but everyone knows how luck runs out fast in the Hunger Games. She might as well face the fact that she's basically fodder for getting slaughtered in that arena. No, Caesar, I don't like her and I doubt anyone else here really does. It's all just for the show."

"Oh, alas. But no matter, it was simply a matter of curiosity. My next question is, how are you finding things here in the Capitol?"

"Oh, this place is nothing at all like back home. I personally am very relieved to be able to say so. I never thought there would be a day when I could say I was able to leave Nine. But now that I'm here, I intend to fight in that arena, to the death if that's the way it has to be of course, but preferably for the glory of victory."

"One more question. Say you were to win these Games. For the sake of yourself and your loved ones, could we then depend on your complete and undying loyalty in all matters, small and monumental, from that day forward?" Caesar then asks Jeremy.

And Jeremy then says smugly, "Count on it. I will always be an ally. You see, there can only ever be one winner, one person who survives, and the rest are all losers. The rest we will have to say goodbye to. But every victory must come at the expense of sacrifice. I am determined and confident that I won't dissapoint you, unlike some of the weaker tributes."

"I wouldn't doubt it." Caesar replies, and the buzzer goes off. "Well, it looks like goodbye Jeremy. I wish you the best of luck in the arena."

"Thank you Caesar."

They both stand and Caesar yells to the crowd, "Jeremy Forbes!" And they all applaud for Jeremy one more time before he leaves the stage for the District Ten tributes to have their turns.

As soon as I see Jeremy, I begin to yell at him. "Who the hell do you think you are you little twerp?! It's not enough to insult me, my family, and District Nine in front of the Careers, you have to make me look bad in front of the whole country too? You are a-"

"What's going on in here?" Noah asks as he just walks in on the scene, and it is only Thelonius and Demetra holding me back that prevents me from punching every inch of Jeremy I can possibly reach.

"Enough, both of you!" Noah says angrily. "Alyssa, you know that it is forbidden to fight unless you are in the arena. So I suggest you calm down before you get into some serious trouble."

Then Noah turns on Jeremy. "And you are cutting it very close yourself Forbes. I know this is the Hunger Games but you don't have to keep on being an arrogant prick who always has to take your petty jealousy out on Alyssa."

"Oh I don't Linwood? Because the way I see it, I think of it as a means of survival. The people in the Capitol seem to like 'an arrogant prick' as you call me. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you have feelings for Alyssa of Nine. Feelings that are not considered appropriate for a mentor to have of any tribute. I thought it was forbidden, isn't it?"

"Jeremy really! Why would Noah even think about such things, it's preposterous, he knows well what's at stake for a mentor! Oh, let's all just forget about this matter and head back to the District Nine living quarters. I'm sure this is because you're both very tired. We all are. Come along, and no more fighting." Henrietta says to us both firmly. "Honestly, manners are not all that difficult to use."

And I follow the others silently to the elevator, deciding to stay as far away as possible from Jeremy tonight, and within the arena as well.


	15. Noah's Last Advice

Early the next morning, as the sunrise is just beginning to creep up and light up the morning sky, I am awakened and I suddenly start up, not knowing who it is at first. But it turns out it is Noah Linwood, who whispers, "hey relax, it's only me. We still have a few hours to kill before...before..."

"It's okay. You're my mentor, you can talk to me. I can listen." I say as I put on and tie up my dressing robe over my nightgown. I follow Noah as we take the elevator down to the ground floor, and we end up walking through a darkened room I have never been in before, and I'm sure no tribute or mentor is supposed to be in.

"Noah, what is this place?" I ask him. He puts a finger to his lips. "Shhh. We're almost there." And we both climb up a ladder to find ourselves in a much smaller room with only two chairs to sit in and one small window. "We're safe to talk about things now. Alyssa, there are some things I know I have to share with you before you are sent to the arena. So hear me out."

So, I sit down to listen. He sits in the other chair. "Alyssa, you know that when you go into that arena, they're going to put you all into a kind of virtual desert. The setting will be like Ancient Egypt. First thing's first, once you've been transported, you must wait for the traditional countdown to end. Do not step off of your pod early or you'll be blown to oblivion.

From there, do not stop at the Cornucopia to try and grab anything at first. It will be a bloodbath, where the Careers will cut all the weakest tributes down, that's their game, not yours. Run straight into the Pyramid and find a safe place to take cover. Only when it's absolutely clear should you go back outside for any supplies or search for any potential allies. Make sure to find water as soon as possible. There's sure to be a true oasis out there but most of the others are either mirages or the water is unfit for consumption. There is also some water to be found in the cacti, though not as much."

"Okay, I'll go straight into the Pyramid. And find shelter, water, food, allies, and steer clear of the Careers. Got it. But if any of them come after me or any of my allies, which is bound to happen eventually, I plan to fight back." And kill them if I absolutely have to, but I don't say that last bit out loud.

"Good. I wouldn't expect anything less from you Alyssa." Noah says. "Is there anything else I should know about?" I ask him. "Yes. Whatever happens, no matter how terrible things may get, stay you, and stay alive. You can win this."

Then Noah says, "We should be getting back to our living quarters before the others notice we're missing." And I agree.

When I am back upstairs I put on my arena uniform, which is light and formfitting as possible and it is black and gold. Jeremy's is black and silver, as can see I see when I sit down at the breakfast table. I accept a glass of orange juice and fill up my plate with all kinds of delicious things. Scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, bacon, ham, and fried potatoes. But I end up eating little of any of it.

Even Jeremy is a lot less cocky than usual this morning, and quieter too, in light of what even he is aware is coming. Two weeks of blistering desert, brutality, betrayal, and murder. I remembered Caretaker Grimes talking to all of us at the orphanage before the reaping. Welcome to Hell, indeed.

At around nine a.m. Capitol time, we are all escorted to the hovercraft that will fly us out to the arena. We all sit into the seats as a black-haired woman comes around asking each tribute to hold out their arms, beginning with the Careers.

She soon comes to me. "Hold out your arm." I do what she says, and I feel a brief moment of sharp pain as the needle point enters my arm. "What did you just inject into my body?" And she says simply, "Just your tracker." And she proceeds to do the same with Jeremy and the others.

We stop at another building out in the middle of nowhere, and I am led to a separate room away from the others. And once I am inside, Athena is waiting. And she has a black and gold jacket for me. "Here, this is to help keep you warm. Even in a desert the nights can get pretty cold."

"Thanks Athena." I barely manage to get out. I'm putting on a show now of being so brave, but I am terrified right now. I don't think I was this scared even when Caretaker Grimes was in one of his rages, set on punishing any orphan if they misbehaved back home, including me. In District Nine, they are by now all certainly being forced to watch everything in these Games. Mace, Cassandra, Nathan, and Natasha. I have to live for them. I have to live for the family I lost.

Athena then takes me into one last hug before I have to go. "Thank you for everything, I-I don't know yet if I'll ever see you or Noah or the others again but if I don't make it-"

"Hey, that's enough of that now. Alyssa, I know you can make it out of this, I have total confidence in you, like Noah and the others. Just remember that. However it turns out, I think your parents would be proud of you."

"I guess maybe you're right." I reply. Just as the announcement is made. "All tributes must enter their pods in ten seconds." And I say, "well, I hope to see you all again when it's over." And I step into my pod and it closes, and I am carried upward, closer and closer to my destiny, whether it is life or death.


	16. Into the Pyramid

As soon as I emerge from my pod, still standing firmly on my pedestal, the intensity of the blazing sun hits me, and I look around to see desert stretching as far out as the arena is massive. I see the other twenty-three tributes standing on their pedestals, which form a ring around the Cornucopia, where I can see weapons of every kind similar to what they used in Ancient Egypt, as well as several backpacks of supplies, and other neccesary items laying out in the open. The most useful are the closest to the center of the Cornucopia. The other items decrease in value and usefulness the further away they are scattered.

I hear the voice of Claudius Templesmith amplified over the arena. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 73rd Annual Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor. The Games will commence in ten...nine...eight...seven...six...five..four..three...two...one..." And then there is the boom of the starting cannon.

And I am running, we are all running, some to kill, some to die, others to grab what supplies they possibly can and then hurry into the Pyramid. As I move to swipe a dark green backpack, there is a thud next to me. The District Five boy has been hit in the back with several knives by Taffeta. And both District Twelve Tributes are also killed when Roland performs a fatal maneuver which snaps the boy's neck with a sickening crunch in the District One Careers' strong arms. The girl is surrounded by both Adonis and Emerald, and she is screaming for mercy when Adonis holds her like she is nothing but a rag doll and Emerald, wearing a sadistic, evil smile says, "Oh, poor little girl from Twelve. Guess it's lights out." Then she stabs the girl repeatedly, her warm, sticky blood splattering everywhere. And then I see them, Jayden and Marina, running for the Pyramid. I run after them while the Careers are still occupied with doing the terrible things they were trained to do.

The Capitol

Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith begin their televised commentary of the Games.

"And we're off to the start of the 73rd Hunger Games. And it's looking to be a real bloodbath, wouldn't you agree Claudius?" Caesar asks Claudius.

"A real bloodbath indeed, Caesar. It's still quite an exciting beginning though. It really gets the audience at the edge of their seats when-oooh! That poor sucker, felled by knives to his back, and look, look at Roland Terwilliger from District One, how quickly he snapped the neck of the boy from twelve, he's a goner for sure. The Careers Adonis and Emerald from District Two are already on the girl from Twelve, which is sadly unsurprising. But so suspenseful. I already have a feeling yet another Career may potentially have the victory for these Games in the bag. What say you, Caesar?"

"Well, not to say anything against my colleague and friend Claudius Templesmith, or even this years' selected crop of Career tributes, but I know that there's already a crazy huge fan base sporting golden hair, golden jewellery, gold everything right here in the Capitol for Alyssa of Nine. Just listen to them yelling for her. She's already running for the Pyramid. You think she may be out to kill the two tributes from Four or could there be a possible alliance in the works? Ladies and Gentlemen, let us take a look inside the Pyramid to find out!"

Alyssa's P.O.V

As soon as I head into the Pyramid however, I already realize that even finding a safe place for shelter will be a challenge, another twisted series of Games. There is a golden sign nearby which I quickly read.

"Enter the Pyramid when you have need,

To rest, to shelter, or from your foes you seek retreat,

But keep in mind if this you dare,

That ancient traps will abound most everywhere,

So if for shelter you now look,

Be careful of each step you take,

Unless you wish to perish among this sand,

Hop from stone to stone to pass this test,

But take caution! Those who fall will surely meet untimely death."

I hear someone say from behind me, "Seems pretty tricky, huh? Luckily, I've had plenty of practice back home in Four." It is Jayden who tells me this matter-of-factly. "You had practice?" I ask.

"Yeah, I used to enjoy leaping from rock to rock by the ocean cliffs. A lot of the working-class kids in Four do it for fun. We would also swim every opportunity we got, to help prepare us, everyone there insists it's customary to take to water with ease, since most people in my District become fishermen and sailors. Except the upper-class, and guys like Finnick Odair, my mentor.

But we'd better move. The Careers won't be hanging around at the Cornucopia forever, there's only so many weak tributes to murder on the first day, and Marina's already made it across. She should be waiting for us to catch up, that's what I told her. Just do what I do, and don't think about the quicksand." And I watch as Jayden makes the first leap onto the first stone. And I begin to cautiously follow him the further he gets across.

Finally, we make it to the other side, Jayden looking as though he just had the time of his life, and me breathing deep breaths in relief. "Come on, follow me, this way," And I follow Jayden gladly. I guess this means that I didn't have to ask. It turned out Jayden wanted me for an ally just as much as I wanted him and Marina.


	17. The First Night

Alyssa's P.O.V

While Jayden and I are climbing up steep stone steps as carefully as possible, I begin to hear several loud booms from the cannon, signaling to everyone, remaining tributes and audiences alike the deaths of the fallen in the arena.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

In total I counted ten deaths. Ten tributes gone on the first day, all just kids, like Jayden, Marina, and I. Ten down, thirteen more to go. And I know I'm very high up on the Careers' kill list, once they realize that Jayden and Marina are working with me, they'll also be targeted for sure.

I know I'm powerless in the end, particularly if I intend to be the one tribute who survives this, but I still feel like I owe it now to Marina and Jayden to protect them for as long as I possibly can since they put their trust in me, and no more.

We find Marina sitting in a magnificent chamber, and she runs immediately to Jayden. I can tell that she had to have worried. "Jayden! I heard the damn cannon going off ten times and I thought-"

"Well you thought wrong. I'm still here, I'm all right. And I've brought us Alyssa of Nine. She'll be our ally, just as planned." Jayden says, grinning. "That's what you wanted yourself, right?" Jayden asks me. All I say in response is, "I'm cool with this." And I unzip my backpack, and Marina and Jayden does the same with theirs.

In my backpack I find:

One flashlight

One box of matches

Several yards of rope

An empty water canteen

Iodine

Bandages meant for small wounds

A package of crackers

Beef jerky

A bag of dried apple slices

1 small jar of petroleum jelly

In Marina's and Jayden's bags we find:

3 sleeping bags

3 bars of soap

A few small cans of sardines

2 more water canteens

Some more iodine

A build-your-own rabbit trap

A package of sunflower seeds

And a small first aid kit

"All right, now that we know what we have, I suggest that we each divide as much of it as we can among ourselves. We also need to ration all of the food we have so far. Alyssa, one of these sleeping bags is yours. We'll need to set out tommorow, first thing in the morning, to find water. And possibly to hunt a rabbit or two. Now-" But before Jayden can continue, the National Anthem of Panem plays and Marina says, "look. The fallen."

The holographic screen shows the fallen in the order of each district they once called home. The District Three tributes are gone, so are the boy from Five, both from Six, the girl from Seven, both from Eight, and both from Twelve. Then the screen fades back into nothingness and it is back to being quiet.

"As I was about to say," Jayden continues, "We'll also need to take it in turns keeping guard over our camp. I'll be the first watch, you can go second Alyssa, Marina can go after you, and so on. I don't want the Careers anywhere near us any more than either of you, or any other dangers that the Gamemakers are responsible for, for that matter.

In case the latter happens, we run. And if something happens to me, or any one of us, do not stop but keep running. The same thing goes if we see the Careers coming for us. No arguing Marina. I would really like for you to go home."

"But Jayden, what about you? I don't want you to die in this godforsaken place. I would rather be dead myself than let that happen to you." Marina protests. "Yeah well, there's no way they'll allow all three of us to survive. That's the Games. That's life. It sucks. And we might as well turn in to get some rest Marina."

I didn't really want to be snapping at either one of them since they are for the time being, my only allies in this arena of death traps. But at the same time I also didn't really want to hear about which cousin doesn't want to lose the other. It isn't going to change anything so there's really no point in bickering all night over it. I settle into my sleeping bag, and Marina gets into hers.

And just before I finally close my eyes, I have to blink and rub away several tears. They are both going to have to die. I intend fully to live. And deep down, I feel like I really am a horrible person for even thinking only about this.

But it doesn't actually all come back to me. I know who it really all comes back to. Not the Careers, the tributes besides, all the hundreds of children murdered in the Games that went before, not the oppressed thousands in all the Districts or the Peacekeepers that oppress them, not the victors, the Gamemakers, or even the Capitolites with all their excessive wealth, freakish superficiality, and decadence, nor the fate of my family, friends, or of Thirteen. All of it is definitely wrong. But there is only one it really comes back to in the end.

Snow. It's always Snow. And if it came to another war, and I was told that I had to, I really don't think I would hesitate to kill him myself. And it's that part of me that I hate the most.


	18. Hall of Fatalities

Sometime during the next morning, I wake up to find that Marina is busily roasting what appears to be a rabbit over a fire she lit in a nearby fire pit. Jayden is nowhere in the chamber. As soon as Marina sees that I'm awake, she says, "Good morning. As you can see I'm taking the liberty of cooking us something to eat. This rabbit and whatever else we have for food isn't much of a breakfast, but in this arena, I get the feeling we're lucky if we can get anything we need at all."

Yeah, that and managing to stay alive. I think. I say to Marina, "I don't mind rabbit. Anything sounds good right about now. Where's Jayden gone to?"

"Oh, he's gone out to look for a source of fresh water. He told me that he's also going to look for Matthew, you know, the boy from District Seven so we can hopefully gain his alliance. You know, you probably shouldn't be snapping at your only allies like you did last night. Because we're all in the same boat now, and you need us as much as we need you Alyssa."

I bit my lip, feeling a twinge of guilt. "I know, and I'm really sorry about that. I guess I was still angry about being in this mess. But it's not you or Jayden I'm really mad at. It's all really complicated."

Some time later the rabbit was fully cooked and just as Marina was portioning out our servings, Jayden had returned, carrying all our canteens, and Matthew was following close behind him. "So, Alyssa of Nine is one of our allies. You know Alyssa, when Jayden first told me that you were a part of this team I thought no way. I assumed--"

"You assumed what? That I would have anything to do with Jeremy or the Careers? Please. I'm well aware how badly the Careers want my blood, and as for Jeremy, he's a--"

"Very unlikable person. But you know, it was because of a well-played strategy on his part that enabled him to make an alliance with the Careers in the first place. You could actually learn something from him. But he's with the Careers now so you'll have to look out not only for the tributes from One and Two but Jeremy as well. We all do." Matthew then took another greasy bite of rabbit meat.

As soon as we finished eating, we packed up the rest of our food and supplies and continued on our way. We all agreed with Jayden that to stay in one area for too long could have dangerous consequences, unless you are exceedingly talented at hiding. And even then there's always some kind of danger.

As soon as we left the chamber, we decided to take the stairs we went down yesterday to leave the Pyramid, but there were no stairs. Instead, there were different ladders to climb up or down from. The Gamemakers have begun to alter the arena. This can't be good. And then I read another sign.

You may notice young tributes if you dare

That this Pyramid no longer contains any stairs

In order to exit this hideout and be on your way,

The task at hand is to climb and run away.

Beware, if you should falter or fail,

The consequences will leave one or more crushed or impaled.

And that is when we begin to hear a loud rumbling noise, and Jayden spots the danger first. "Run everyone, it's a goddamned boulder!" And we all hurry off, desperate to avoid getting crushed to death like the riddle I had just read implied. It is only the danger of getting crushed to death that keeps me running, pushing myself to keep moving. As well as thinking about Mace, Nathan, and Cassandra and my promise that I would do everything I could to win these Games. I also thought about Noah. He had absolute faith in me. I have to make it. I have to make it. I have to make it.

We soon make it out of harm's way of the boulder, Matthew, Jayden, Marina, and I. But from the gruesome screams and cracking sounds, another tribute who tried to outrun the boulder but was just one fraction of a second too late, is just another life sacrificed for the amusement of the Capitol, and the punishment of whoever his family members are. And the cannon goes off. Twelve of us are left now.

Then, we see a ladder and just as Matthew looks up to check if the area above is safe, we hear them. Laughing from behind us. And we turn to see that the Careers, and Jeremy, have found us. And it's four of us against five of them. It's beginning to look like the odds are not in our favour.

"Well well," Adonis sneers. "This is just the kind of massacre we've been looking forward to. Alyssa of Nine. Tsk Tsk. Your time is up, orphan trash. I guess it's game over for your pathetic little allies too.

Roland, Jeremy, you get to kill lumber boy and the noble loser Jayden from District Four. Taffeta and Emerald, you can have his weakling cousin Marina, and I guess that leaves me and you, orphan girl. I think I'm going to want to enjoy this. I'm going to kill you as slowly, bloodily, and painfully as possible. We'll give them the show they all want. And bring even more hard-earned pride to the better districts."

Adonis quickly backs me into a corner as he says this, and he seems to be thinking of something, and then says, while he begins to move one hand up into my shirt, "I think this will be for Noah Linwood's benefit." Adonis says as he squeezes one of my breasts hard, bruisingly, domineeringly.

I bite my lip hard to keep from screaming. All the time, I am frozen from terror, and outrage that even a ruthless Career such as Adonis would stoop to not only his original plan to murder me, but even to rape me before the murder. To degrade me so thorougly before I am to die. As if to say to the country that as an orphan, and an orphan from one of the most outlying districts, that this is all I am worth. This is all I deserve. But I won't give him the satisfaction of screaming or pleading for my life or dignity. I will hold out for as long as I possibly can.

But then, something unexpected happens. Instead of killing whoever he was given clear instructions to kill, Jeremy launches himself at Adonis to stop his attack against me. "GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE, ALYSSA!" Jeremy bellows, just before Adonis turns on Jeremy furiously and stabs him in the stomach with an Egyptian dagger. And, in that moment, Matthew turns on an off-guard Roland and gives him a violent, deadly blow with his ax. Adonis screams furiously and tries to go after Matthew but Jayden is fortunately quick enough on his feet to give Adonis a hard enough kick to send him sprawling a ways down the corridor. Just before Adonis, Taffeta, and Emerald turn away in retreat, Adonis says, "I will find you again orphan." And they leave.

"Ya whatever. See you later losers. Alyssa, Marina, Matthew, up the ladder, hurry!" Jayden yells. Just as Jeremy, dying on the stone floor in a dark pool of his own blood gasps his last words to me. "I guess...I owed you that after all orphan girl. Make sure...make sure you win..." And just as we hurry up the ladder, the cannon goes off twice more. One for the Career Roland, the other for Jeremy Forbes. He may have been obnoxious, arrogant, and even cruel in many ways, but somehow, there was still something good enough in Jeremy to bring him to sacrifice himself for me.


	19. Oasis and Sponsor Parachutes

Early the next morning just before the sunrise I wake up to find that there are three sponsor parachutes with three separate containers labeled with our district numbers waiting for each of us nearby the oasis. The one with a '4' is for either Jayden or Marina, the one with a '7' is Matthew's, and the one with a '9' is mine.

I quickly open my container to find at least three things inside. One is a canister of warm scrambled eggs, just enough to share between all four of us, the second thing is a small golden dagger, and the third is a medicine for cuts and burns in case we should have any need of it, which had to have cost my sponsors dearly. There is also a note inside from Noah.

Alyssa, keep holding on in there and stay away from the Careers. Depend on your allies. Jayden, Marina, and Matthew all know what they're doing since they have made it this far. But remember that if you are going to survive the Games then you will also have to depend on yourself as well.

Now that fifteen tributes are dead and nine of you are still alive, the Games are going to get a lot tougher, and even more perilous the nearer it gets to the final battle which is traditionally between the last two tributes standing, but you may need to face more. Emerald and Adonis are the Careers you need to be especially careful of. They are on the warpath and they will stop at nothing to kill you and your allies. It's what they were trained to do.

Above all, be brave, be smart, and stay alive. You can win this.

-Noah

Just as I finish reading this, I hear the National Anthem blaring and I look up to see the fallen from yesterday appear in the arena sky.

Roland Terwilliger-District One

Jeremy Forbes-District Nine

Bianca Hertford-District Ten

Andrew Stanton-District Ten

Penny Henson-District Eleven

And then it goes back to being quiet. Marina, Jayden, and Matthew are all awake now, and Jayden asks me, "How long have you been up for?" And I say, "Probably ten minutes. Ever since I heard these parcels from our sponsors landing next to me. There's also one for you or Marina, and there's something for Matthew." Almost at once, Matthew grabs his container which is the largest, and sits down to open it and see what's inside. First Matthew finds a small bottle of an antidote to be used in the case of certain kinds of poisoning. He rummages deeper into the container and finds some more food.

"Hey guys, we've got some apples. Not like the ones in the Capitol, they are the wild growing ones like we get back home in Seven. They're still in pretty good shape. They taste good, too." Matthew takes a small knife and begins to cut one of the apples into wedges, and then splits the wedges between us.

"Thanks." I say when Matthew hands me my share of the apple. "Are you going to share those scrambled eggs with us?" Matthew asks me. So I pick up the canister and take a quick mouth full with the fork. "I'm afraid this is the only fork we have, so we'll just have to keep passing the can of eggs around." This is when Jayden says, "Look what else we've got. A whole loaf of bread from Four." Matthew picks up the loaf in his hands and examines it. "Dude, is there like actual seaweed in this thing?"

And Jayden says, "Yep. It's really not that bad. Just a little chewier than Capitol bread and saltier because of the dulse they add to it. Either way, it's better than what we've had to choke down for the past few days. Can I steal that knife for a few minutes?"

After Jayden cuts us each a slice of the seaweed bread, we all sit down to eat our breakfast of tributes. We also begin to plan out other strategies for survival once I have read the note that Noah sent me out loud at Jayden's insistence. We decide by around noon to fill up our canteens with more water, pack up our things and move out. As we begin trekking through the sand under a broiling sun, we hear the Head Gamemaker, Seneca Crane make an announcement.

"Attention tributes, attention. There is to be a feast inside the Pyramid, containng some things that you each desperately need, some things that would neither help nor harm you, and many deceiving things that appear to be harmless but may instead be... dangerous. Can you figure it out? Think you're up to the challenge? You must return to the Pyramid to find out. That is all for today. May the odds be ever in your favor."


	20. ACT TWO: The Victor

The Victor"

I won't just survive

Oh you will see me thrive

Can't write my story

I'm beyond the archetype

I won't just conform

No matter how you shake my core

Cause my roots they run deep, oh

Oh ye of so little faith

Don't doubt it, don't doubt it

Victory is in my veins

I know it, I know it

And I will not negotiate

I'll fight it, I'll fight it

I will transform...

When, when the fire's at my feet again

And the vultures all start circling

They're whispering: "You're out of time," But still I rise

This is no mistake, no accident

When you think the final nail is in

Think again

Don't be surprised

I will still rise...

Rise by Katy Perry


	21. A Deadly Banquet

Once Claudius Templesmith ends the announcement, I look at Matthew, Jayden, and Marina. "That settles it. I'm going back to the Pyramid, I'll see if I can find something else I might need. There probably will be." I say to all of them. Better to go our own separate ways now than for me to stay, if it turns out that I will only end up having to kill any of them. I don't want to be the one responsible for that inevitable cruelty.

"Alyssa, no way in Hell are you leaving us now. We all made our deals, see when you're part of an alliance, you have to stick with that alliance no matter what. Otherwise, you'd be no better than the Careers." Jayden tells me. But I say, "I don't want to end up killing any one of you. Don't you understand that? The longer I stay, the more I get afraid that that is exactly what is going to happen. I intend to survive, but I don't want to be a murderer just because that's what the Hunger Games are about. I'd be no better than any of them if I do what they want."

Marina, Matthew, and Jayden all look at me as though they are fearful that President Snow may order any one of the Gamemakers to blow me to bits at any moment. "Alyssa! Are you an idiot? That way of thinking is something that's forbidden! Do you want to bring trouble down on your own district? Because that's what it's beginning to look like!" Matthew says angrily. "You don't have a choice but to play it their way. It's not about compassion, humanity, or trust. It's about staying alive, to quote something Noah Linwood once said after he won his Games. And you still need us in order to survive." I can't argue with this because Matthew's right. We still need to work as allies in order to survive. Just like the fact that sooner or later, I'll likely be forced to kill someone in order to stay alive. Be it a Career, one of my team, or one of the last other tributes standing, wherever they're hiding now. That's the Hunger Games.

After Matthew says that, he turns to Jayden and Marina. "I think you'd both better come along with us. From what the Head Gamemaker just said, there's going to be a lot of danger at this so-called banquet. It will be safer if we are all there as a team in case the remaining Careers come along to try and murder us, and it's very likely they'll be drawn to the banquet on the hunt for not only us but any more supplies they can get their hands on." Marina says to this, "Of course you're right, Matthew. Are you still with us?"

"Like you would even have to ask. I've been looking forward to the opportunity to take out another Career or two. The more tributes that go, the closer these Games get to the conclusion. Let's do it." Matthew says with a steely look of determination as he grabs his bag and picks up his ax. And it is decided, all of us pack up and move out back toward the Pyramid.

As soon as we enter the Pyramid, what at first appears to be almost total darkness flares into brightness as several torches light around us. And we see a massive table that appears to be made of solid gold, with at least hundreds of different items waiting on it. Bags of desert camping supplies, medicines, weapons, even glittering jewels and the makings of an Egyptian feast, spicy meats, hummus, breads, cheeses, sesame cakes, fruits, and goblets of wine. But there is also a sign nearby which Marina tells us to read with her. So we all gather around it.

Behold young tributes this table of gold,

Contains an assortment of supplies you'll need to grab and go,

Weapons to kill, remedies and tools to survive,

But not everything on this table would save your life,

Which is why in order for any of you to advance,

You must now be put to a different test,

Do you have what it takes to avoid falling into this trap?

Beware of temptation, vanity and gluttony mask sudden death.

"I think by vanity they mean the jewels, and by gluttony that's the food and wine. The feast must be poison, as for the jewels I don't know, but it's clear that whatever would happen in that case is also fatal. So we'll have to take only what we absolutely need to survive in the long run, which would be anything in the bags and the weapons. So anything you think you need, better grab it now so we can get out of here." Jayden tells us.

"But why are you in such a hurry?" Someone else asks. We all turn around to see that Taffeta and Emerald are here, and they are both advancing toward us. I also know for a fact that Emerald has at least twenty or so different knives hidden away on the inside of her jacket, and Taffeta has a frighteningly sick talent for thinking of ways to strangle people. But there is more of us then there are of them.

"You're a bit outnumbered One and Two. Is Adonis cowering in fear somewhere because he saw what Matthew did to your friend Roland last time we met?" I ask Emerald and Taffeta tauntingly. "Or did he leave you girls to do the dirty work because he's lazy as well as an arrogant sleaze?"

"Alyssa! Be careful, they're still lethal!" Marina hisses." Emerald smiles a cruel smile. "Your little weakling friend is smarter than she looks. You should listen to her. But we found you this easily since you're right where we expected you to be. So on second thought, I guess you're all not so smart."

Emerald then pulls out a knife from her jacket. "Adonis gave us a job to do. As long as we promised to leave you alive orphan, for him to take care of later, he said we could kill any of your friends we want. It's too bad it has to be this way. Too bad for your friends from Four, anyway."

Before Matthew and I can retaliate, Taffeta grabs hold of me, holding my arms tight behind my back with one hand and her other hand holds another blade at my throat. Matthew moves to rescue me but Taffeta says coldly, "Make another move lumber boy, and Alyssa of Nine dies too. I almost let out a yell of pain as Taffeta presses the blade even harder, hard enough to draw some blood, from the feeling of it.

Emerald yells, "No! The District Nine orphan trash is Adonis' kill, remember?" Then she looks at Marina with bloodlust and cries, "But you shall be mine!" And Emerald moves for Marina, poised to stab her to death, but Jayden yells, "No!" and gets in her way, standing between both girls. And I am helpless to do anything as Emerald stabs Jayden once, and then twice. And he collapses onto the stone floor.


	22. Jayden's Death

Just as Jayden fell to the floor, Emerald looked down at the dying boy and she says, "Looks like it's you instead. You were too self-sacrificing for your own good. And now you're left to die, so much for a cousin's love. Now your pathetic cousin is about to follow you in death."

"LIKE HELL SHE IS!" Matthew growls, and with one lethal swing and blow of his axe, Taffeta is also down and bleeding out from where he struck her. "Looks like you've lost another ally. I would get out if I were you, or you'll be next." Matthew says to Emerald.

But Emerald just shrieks in fury and runs straight at Matthew, but I am quick to jump on Emerald from up on the table, I pull her head back by her long, now quite matted black hair as she screams and tries to fight me off but I'm actually stronger than I look, fortunately. And with one fatal maneuver, I have used my golden dagger from Noah to slit Emerald's throat. A sickening gurgle arises from her throat as her blood spews everywhere, and she falls, and so do I with her. I drop the dagger just before the tumble and roll away from the now silenced Emerald.

Then I hurry over to Jayden's side, where Matthew and Marina are both now crouched. "Jayden, oh my God Jay! You'll be okay, you'll be okay, you have to be okay!" Marina says hysterically over and over again. "Don't leave me Jayden, please don't leave me. You're the best cousin in the world, don't go!"

But Jayden, in his last dying breaths says, "Marina...I love you. You, Alyssa, and Matthew must do the rest without me. Don't cry. Don't..." Then, his head falls back, his eyes turn glassy, and he dies. Jayden is gone. And the cannon goes off three times.

One: Taffeta Laundau

Two: Emerald Dawson

And Three: Jayden Seacrest

They will come in a hovercraft shortly to collect the bodies, just as they always do. The fallen will be sent in coffins to three separate districts, where their families will be left to mourn, and the people must bury them with dignity. Perhaps the families of these two girls may be so consumed by the common support of the Capitol that runs strongly in the first two districts, believing that President Snow and this government always had the right ideas even now.

The families of these slain girls might even choose to look at it it this way, that Taffeta and Emerald were two trained Careers who worked hard to bring pride and honour to their districts yes, but fell short of the mark when they died. It's not an uncommon thing in One and Two, I've heard.

But it's Jayden who we are all grieving for the most. Marina is sobbing as she and Matthew and I all just hold on to each other. Before I know it, I am also crying. But then I get back up, and I say this, while wiping away any evidence of tears.

"Well Snow, I hope you and your precious Capitol are satisfied with this. Three more tributes died today. You drove us to kill Taffeta and Emerald, just like you drove Emerald to kill Jayden. Six of us are all that's left now. It's your Games. It's this government's doing.

But I'm not defeated yet. I'm going to survive this. And you want to know why? Because I'm Alyssa Whitestone, from District Nine, that's why. And I make no apologies for who and what I am. I embrace it, just like my parents did. My parents who you had executed. But it will come to an end Snow. No more arenas, no more Hunger Games, no more. And then where will you be? Try and answer that if you fucking can!"

And I sink back down on the stone floor and Marina and Matthew shortly after come to pick me back up again, Matthew is looking grimly at me, but all he says is, "We should take a few things and move out." Marina is still crying silently. And I put one of my arms around her to try to offer as much comfort as I can, even though it's not much. And all three of us continue on in these Games.

Seneca Crane and President Snow both watch and listen to Alyssa's words, considering them. The Head Gamemaker with a look of increasing worry, the President sitting, considering something terrible in the darkest parts of his cruel mind. Seneca Crane was worried that the President could even be plotting out his own demise for failing to do something drastic about the defiant girl.

"Just say the word sir, and I can have Alyssa of Nine killed, swept aside as if she'd never even existed." Seneca suggests. But Snow says quietly, "Oh no. No, I don't intend to make this that easy for Alyssa Whitestone. I intend to make her suffer. Let her insult me however she wants now. Once she gets out of that arena, I will virtually own her just like I own every other victor across Panem. Perhaps I can kill everyone she cares about like I did with Haymitch Abernathy and Johanna Mason. Or perhaps for posessing such beauty, she could be sold to the highest bidders like I've always done with Finnick Odair. Keep an eye on Noah Linwood. I want to know what letters he sends for Alyssa, and what his recent behaviour is about."

"Yes Mr. President."


	23. Marina's Death

By the near end of the first of the two weeks of our Hunger Games-or at least that's how long it feels like we've all been imprisoned in this hellhole- the days just seem to be getting longer, hotter, and the nights lonelier and shorter. There have been days where we would trek around this arena in search of water, food, any food we can find in such a place, since starving is by no means a great way to go. Neither is dehydration.

At one point, things began to look so bleak that it was all we could do to push ourselves forward to stay alive. I don't know where Adonis is hiding or what he's planning now, but I know he knows that Taffeta and Emerald are dead. It's only a matter of time when he finds out that Matthew killed Taffeta and I killed Emerald. We have to be prepared, and we have to stay alive.

The Games are moving slower now that there's so few of us left, and still another week to go before it is all supposed to officially end. There haven't been any more deaths-yet. But Matthew, Marina, and I know it's just a matter of time.

Just like it's only a matter of time before the Gamemakers put a series of other potentially deadly obstacles in our way to liven the show up for the Capitol audiences. Or they'll sick mutts on us, or worse still, put us through some twisted form of psychological torture, perhaps hoping that it may push at least one of us so far past the brink of insanity that this particular tribute might even go on a killing frenzy and murder their own allies. Yes, the Gamemakers are all certainly about the fun in the Games. I despise them as much as our dear President.

Now, as though that wasn't bad enough, Jayden's murder now haunts me even when I sleep in dreams. I have just woken up not too long ago from another gory nightmare of children getting killed and me not being able to do a thing about it.

I think Noah must be watching me still, and he sees how I am unable to get much sleep lately, because just then I see another package from my sponsors drift slowly down toward me. Sure enough, it has a 9 on it and I open it to find a small bottle of liquid sleeping serum from the Capitol, and a short letter besides, which was written by Noah, and I turn on my flashlight to read it, making sure to get into my sleeping bag to hide as much of the light as I can.

Alyssa, take this medicine. It is specially formulated so that you will be able to sleep without any nightmares. You need to get some rest and be more alert than ever and on a constant lookout for any threats. Be the threats from other tributes or death traps designed by the Gamemakers. And there will be plenty of those threats ahead.

Just keep on hanging on in there and stay alive. I'll see you in a few days.

-Noah

Several days after Noah's letter, Matthew, Marina, and I return to the Pyramid since we have heard an announcement urging us to return there. The Pyramid now held an enormous maze, and at its very center was a prize that Seneca Crane says will mean eternal glory for one of us (obviously). So we decide to head back, hoping that we don't come across Adonis or any of the other remaining tributes along the way.

Once we are near the entrance of the Pyramid, we see something being etched into the stone.

Enter tributes right this way,

There's another dangerous game you have to play

Inside this Pyramid now waits a maze.

To claim your prize, the heart of the maze is the only way to go.

But be wary, this is no ordinary maze,

There are twelve trials that lie in wait

They can change you, and even bring about your demise

So venture carefully, these challenges are your final tests,

But know in the end, only the worthiest tribute can be the winner, only one may be permitted to survive.

The Twelve Trials of Torment

-Trials by Daylight (Eastern Areas)

-Trials by Darkness (Western Areas)

Trial One: Quicksand (noon)

Trial Two: Crumbling Floors

Trial Three: Sandstorm

Trial Four: Crocodile Mutts

Trial Five: Deadly Sun Beams of Ra

Trial Six: Blood Payment

Trial Seven: Pharoah's Fury

Trial Eight: Poison or Passage

Trial Nine: Voices of Torment

Trial Ten: Mummy Mutts

Trial Eleven: Blazing Fires

Trial Twelve: Final Battle (midnight)

After we finished reading all of that, the messages disappear and the entrance we used to enter the Pyramid sealed itself with a loud rumble. So Matthew says this, "Well that's that. We know that there's no way of going back, and that the first six challenges we must face from noon until six, and the rest of them are all set for nightfall, and the final battle, presumably between the last tributes standing will begin at midnight. So we should move out now and get the first challenge over with."

Just as Matthew says this, I hear Marina scream, "Matthew, Alyssa, help!" And we both turn to see that the ground around us is turning into quicksand, and Marina has ended up stuck in it. She has sunken in now just below her knees.

"Alyssa!" Marina screams again. There's nothing else for it. Ignoring Matthew's shouts to "Just leave her!" I pull out a long rope and I throw the other end toward Marina to grab onto. "Matthew! I need your help to get her out! Come on!" But no matter how hard we try to pull Marina out, she just seems to be sinking faster and further down. She is up to her waist in quicksand now, and it's getting harder to pull her out. No, no, no. I know when I look at Marina that even the remotest possibility of saving her has slipped through my fingers, and she knows it too.

"Alyssa." There are tears now rolling down her face. "It's no use. I'm sorry. I d-don't want to die. B-but you have to leave me. Go with Matthew. He will still help you." And as much as I don't want to leave, I know there's no other way. "Please win. For me and Jayden. For everyone in the districts." Are her last words before she is swallowed completely into the sand. The cannon that symbolizes the end of Marina's short-lived life sounds out over the arena at some point as I am running as far away from what had just happened as I can possibly get. And Matthew is yelling from somewhere behind me.

"Alyssa, hold up!" And I finally stop as he catches completely up to me in a chamber part of the Pyramid. I suddenly am posessed by a terrible fit of anger. I scream as I grab whatever breakable Ancient Egyptian artifacts I can find and I keep throwing them, breaking them, and screaming swear words. After who knows how long I spend doing this in my fit, five minutes? Fifteen? Half an hour? I finally sink to the stone of the floor and Matthew does the same, right next to me.

"Alyssa," He tells me quietly after a while of staying silent, "There was nothing either of us could have done. The Gamemakers saw to it. As they always will, except for one. One victor, one icon, one survivor for every Games. And you and I, we have to keep going." Matthew was right of course. But still, some part of me feels like it was all my fault, I killed Emerald, and now Marina, even though I never wanted Marina to die. The longer these Games continued, the more I was turning into something to be feared, something I despised, something deadly. Or worse, that I would be frail, damaged, broken. Maybe Snow and his whole corrupted Capitol thought that I could be easily controlled and manipulated.

But as I already promised, I was going to show them all that I wasn't going to be broken so easily.


	24. Matthew's Sacrifice

Matthew and I had not had to worry about the crumbling floors or the sandstorm, since we had hurried right after Marina's death toward the West of the Pyramid. I was also certain that the Gamemakers had decided to shorten these trials, since they and the President probably wanted the Games to be over as soon as possible so they can crown their victor and claim yet another slave to the Capitol. We both discovered that the girl from District Five had also perished, possibly from the second or third trial or even at the hands of Adonis or the big guy from Eleven whose name is Bruno, we don't know. But we heard the cannon and saw her picture along with her name and district projected above us at some point in the passing hours. "Well, looks like it's just you, me, the big lug from Eleven, and the Career sleaze Adonis. Quite the little party, don't you think Alyssa?" Matthew asks me, smirking.

"I don't know how you can take this so lightly Matthew, especially now. I don't know about what the guy from Eleven is capable of but Adonis is my main concern as far as the others who are left. As for you, you can either stay or you can go your own way. In the end, only one of us will be walking out of this arena." I say in reply.

"Yeah, no kidding Alyssa of Nine. But as far as the options you handed me, I have to say that you're still a little too compassionate. I came from a pretty bad situation back home. My father walked out on my mother as soon as we realized she was sick and left me alone to look after her. Now she has no one. Because of that deadbeat and these stupid Games, she's going to die alone!" Matthew yelled in anger. He sat with his head in his dirty, calloused hands.

I sat next to Matthew. "Hey. Keep it together. We only have each other to depend on. And the Games are still not over. Any one of us could be this year's victor." I say to Matthew.

"You said it. Too bad though the victor won't be either one of you." A sneering voice says. We both turn to see Adonis advancing on us. Matthew picks up his ax and I hold out my golden dagger.

"Are you really sure you want to try anything Adonis? Think about it. The girl from Nine has a dagger and I have an ax, something that I've spent years learning to use. And one of my mentors is quite the renowned murderess. I managed to pick up at least a few deadly tricks from her. And Alyssa of Nine has already taken care of your District Two partner pretty damn well." Matthew says.

"I don't give a damn about Emerald or the others. They're dead now. But you lumber boy, are going down, because I still have one more trick of my own." But just before Adonis can send his spear through Matthew, I hear the sound of reptilian snapping and growling. We are suddenly surrounded on all sides by-"

"Mutts!" I gasp, now truly afraid that this could be it. These Mutts are grotesque, hideous, Capitol engineered versions of crocodiles. They are several pounds larger than true crocodiles, and they are a hundred times more predatory and deadly. I counted five of them, and at least two of them are still carrying the sickening, gory remains of torn off limbs. And the cannon thundered and we discovered that District Eleven's Bruno was dead. He died a horrific death from the looks of things, I don't envy anyone who gets ripped apart. I would probably be sick if I weren't so frozen in terror. And it was just about to get worse.

Four other Mutts appeared to join them, and they were like rotted corpses wrapped in yellowed, ancient bandages. They were like mummies that had arisen from the dead, zombielike in their movements, with the faces of Jayden, Marina, and the features almost of another man and woman, who I recognized as being my parents.

My parents were killed by orders of Snow, and now the Gamemakers had "recreated" them in a monstrous form to kill us, to kill me, while the people in the Capitol made sport of our deaths. It was a disturbing, sick joke. Adonis was nowhere in sight.

"Alyssa, get out of here!" Matthew yelled at me as the Mutts came closer to us. "Run!" He screamed, just as the Mutts charged after us and we both began running for our lives. I ran the fastest I probably ever had, not caring about what was behind me, or what lay ahead, only that I was running to stay alive.

I came upon a vast chamber of the Pyramid which had at its center a large gold icon of a mighty falcon, and there also appeared the symbol of Panem at its heart. I gasped for breath, stopping as the cannon thundered again, and I realized by one glance at the projection in front of me that Matthew is gone, too. This was why he told me to run, so he could sacrifice himself by letting the mutts take him instead. And I realized something else.

I was at the center of the maze, at the heart of the Pyramid. It was just me and Adonis left.

The Games are almost over.


End file.
